‘Without arms or legs, HS2 is now the Acton to Aston Line’

• HS2 now combines being both the largest white elephant in British transport history and a spectacularly dead duck.

As prime minister Rishi Sunak has cancelled High Speed 2’s Manchester leg, with no prospect of Sir Keir Starmer reversing this decision, HS2 will now run only between London and Birmingham. It will not, however, go to their centres.

Curzon Street, HS2’s Birmingham terminus, is well short of the city centre; and the private sector will certainly not pay £4billion for a tunnel from Old Oak Common to Euston.

Without arms or legs, HS2 is now the Acton to Aston Line. The main aim of the project, linking the north and south, having been abandoned there is no good reason to build any of HS2.

We have two excellent railway links already between central London and central Birmingham. Trains from Euston and Marylebone, stopping conveniently on the way, run to New Street quickly and comfortably.

A third line between London and Birmingham is completely unnecessary. Even if it is built, no one will pay a premium to travel at speed between Old Oak Common and Curzon Street. The southern leg of HS2 should now also be cancelled without further delay.

MARTIN SHEPPARD, NW1