Dear Editor, At a time when High Speed 2 attracts such highly polarised viewpoints from those opposing the scheme and those in favour, the well reasoned points made by Glyn Pitchford (Post, May 12) are most welcome.

As Mr Pitchford suggests, the opponents to the scheme may have some reasonable points worth listening to, even if their opposition to HS2 is not.

There are many good reasons for higher speed operation, not least the higher income from more passengers. Operating costs are reduced from faster turnaround times for rolling stock against a very small increase in construction costs for the higher speeds.

The greatest advantage of the higher speed is that rail journeys from Birmingham to Paris and Brussels will be quicker than by flying.

For faster journeys from the West Midlands to London and the South East, the greatest savings can be made by “slicker and quicker” connections between trains, achieved best by cross platform interchange at the main stations and increased frequency of connecting local services.

Mr Pitchford questions the connectivity of the proposed new station at Curzon Street.

As he says this could be a struggle with travel bags and suitcases. For passengers changing trains from high speed services to the local connections at New Street this is a serious time penalty that negates much of the benefit gained by the high speed.

Being the first city of Britain’s new high speed rail network, Birmingham could enjoy a much greater role as a travel interchange.

This could reap economic benefits from being a place where tourists stop en route, benefiting city centre hotels and restaurants. If all the trains now using New Street were to also stop at new platforms immediately south of the high speed station, interchange connectivity would be greatly improved, reducing journey times between London and West Midlands suburbs.

High speed rail must integrate into the region’s transport as seamlessly as possible. High Speed 2 has to offer faster journey times from London to Wolverhampton, which sees a six-minute longer through journey time after HS2 is opened, with only a possible small time saving by changing at Birmingham.

HS2 will benefit the country, but let’s have more foresight and reap even greater benefits from HS2.

Graham Nalty

Boulton Moor, Derby