• IS High Speed 2 masquerading as a safety-conscious Network Rail operation?

In your pages (Roadworks are the nightmare before Christmas for independent traders, December 8) and other publications, we are informed of the inability by representatives of Network Rail to respond to the questions fielded by those attending two public meetings organised presumably by or on behalf of Network Rail on the proposed processes for the bridge renewal over the Regent’s Canal.

The short answer to this is simple.

They did not know and still do not.

Network Rail simply took the money and let HS2 get on with it!

Network Rail is the owner of the old bridge but the intended work is instigated by HS2 for their operational purposes in perpetuity.

The bridge was surplus to Network Rail’s use for decades, except occasionally for “parking” an empty train on it for minor servicing.

Also, the tracks over the bridge lead very tight to sets of buildings immediately south from the canal – a workshop and Charles Darwin residences.

For future clarification, HS2 was not agreed and voted on by the two major parties only, all those years ago. The Liberal Democrats’ Susan Kramer then brought her party into the fold.

How easy it would have been then to swing the proposal from Euston and place the HS2 station on a new platform above the Eurostar and Midland line at St Pancras and utilising the existing North London Line tracks – even to Stratford.

Unlimited variations!

A transport planner’s delight, but how to carry the cash blinkered banks along?

HERMAN TRIBELNIG
Camden Town Urban Design
Improvement Society, NW1