High Speed 2 costs less than main line upgrades - Financial Times

From Lord Adonis.

Sir, Despite your hesitant editorial "The high cost of high-speed rail" (February 28), the case for High Speed 2 remains very strong. Capacity constraints on the West Coast main line, already serious, become acute in the 2020s. If HS2 is not ultimately built through to Manchester and Leeds, all four existing main lines going north – not only the West Coast main line, but also the Chiltern line, the Midland main line and the East Coast main line – will need to be upgraded over coming decades, at a cumulative cost far greater than HS2.