Letters to the Editor – 29/04 – HS2 alternatives, Super-billionaires, Best of Twitter
HS2 alternatives
[Re: Why MPs need to vote against the expensive folly that is HS2, yesterday]
There is a “taxpayer free” alternative to HS2. The private sector solution is to build a new freight rail line to increase capacity on passenger lines. By transferring freight trains from the West Coast Mainline to the new line, twice the number of passenger trains could be run – thus providing the same capacity increase as HS2. As a freight line can use re-opened lines, it would also avoid inner city tunnelling and would have no need for new stations. Proposals for a privately financed freight railway were rejected by Parliament in 1996 and 2004.
Name withheld
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Super-billionaires
[Re: How Britain can nurture the next generation of super-entrepreneurs, yesterday]
Well done to the Centre for Policy Studies for publishing something so obvious, yet so necessary. As Lewis Brown says, these billionaires have created companies that add value to our lives in millions of ways we could never list, but their wealth is labelled unfair and problematic – as if any of the rest of us could do what they’ve done. While there are clearly industries (and countries) where entrepreneurs are making money within a rigged system, in the free markets of Europe and the US, these people are to be admired and emulated, not attacked.
Ollie Hanington
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BEST OF TWITTER
Putin has two long-term options. One: back down on Ukraine. Two: pivot to Asia.
@ianbremmer
Russian relief rally as sanctions list is weaker than expected. Means Ukraine will escalate even more.
@zerohedge
70 per cent of EU citizens will vote for parties explicitly against the EU status quo, or won’t vote at all.
@pietercleppe
Businesses are compelled by necessity to respond to tech changes. No reason Tube should be immune.
@ChristianJMay