I’M growing increasingly tired of the negative letters on HS2 in the press.

As a retired railway man of many years service with the railways, I can remember the same hostilities to the APT (Advanced Passenger Train) way back in the early 1980s. The cost was the main outcry.

Incidentally, that was only going to be a fraction of the cost of the present scheme.

It got a bad press and the Government decided to save face to pull the plug on it and stop all future funding. Now the same cost argument is raising its head once again.

People never seem to learn in this country that an up-to-date railway system is long overdue. Anyone visiting the Continent can see that even after the British dismissal of the APT many innovations were adopted by the high speed train, the TGV.

Continentals learned quickly that this sort of fast and efficient transport had not been an option but a necessity. They soon became aware that these faster links between cities and countries meant increased prosperity.

A completed HS2 project will do the same for this country – even our town will show significant benefits from the investment.

For once let’s all stop bickering and analysing the costs and look at the positive side of a finalised HS2 and the untold prosperity it will bring to this area.

HOWARD CURRAN Crewe