4 days ago
Planes, trains and more missteps from Labour
Polly Toynbee rightly advocates greener rail travel over the greater environmental damage caused by airliners (Pushing airport expansion while rail travel languishes – so much for Labour's green agenda, 5 August). Alas, the same government that has authorised a massive expansion of Heathrow airport has also just pulled the plug on completing the electrification of the Midland Main Line from London to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield.
By my reckoning, this is the third time the scheme has been abandoned partway through. It will ensure that four diesel trains an hour will be plying the route for the foreseeable future, adding to air quality issues and consuming more fossil fuels.
The overhead wiring for the electric trains currently ends in the middle of nowhere a few miles south of Leicester. New trains being built for the route are bi-mode – that is, equally capable of operating on diesel or electric power. It's all a huge waste – and more proof that, when it comes to investing in the north, the money always runs WhitehouseSilkstone Common, South Yorkshire
Polly Toynbee is correct to assert the advantages of rail versus flying, especially for domestic journeys. She does not mention the big drawback of the current UK rail system – unreliability. I live in Aberdeenshire and have family in Birmingham and London. I have given up on using the train to visit family because on many occasions my train has not reached its destination because of cancellations of connections or driver shortages. I now reluctantly fly to Birmingham and London from Aberdeen. I will return to rail (my preferred option) when I can be sure of reaching my Nick WilliamsAuchenblae, Aberdeenshire
Living as I do adjacent to the flight path to Manchester airport, I would of course welcome any reduction in non-essential air travel. But more Eurostar journeys are of little relevance to anyone living outside the south-east because of the cost and time involved in getting to St Pancras. But here's an idea. Now we have an integrated rail network, why not adapt the Interrail idea of allowing the cost of the journey to and from the home station to St Pancras to be covered by the standard Eurostar fare? That would incentivise the use of rail travel to Europe for all of those who currently fly because there is no practical ReardonCheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester
Polly Toynbee is so right in her analysis of the case against the Heathrow third runway. If our only hope of stopping them is Boris Johnson indeed lying down in front of those bulldozers, we are Squires St Andrews, Fife
International Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways, is implying that the cost of a third runway at Heathrow will be so expensive that it can't be done without public subsidy (Heathrow's third runway 'is going to be empty' if it means high fees, says BA owner, 1 August). As air travel comes bottom in the hierarchy of sustainable transport to meet our climate obligations, and the last thing Londoners need is more plane noise and air pollution, I can't think of a single reason for rescuing this venture, particularly as so many other parts of the UK are in urgent need of investment in better rail Rathbone MSSenedd member for Cardiff Central
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