YEP Letters: January 10

Underground is the only solution John Dyson, Moortown I enjoyed Saturday’s In My View column by Neil Hudson, and cannot agree more that our city’s only feasible transport solution is an underground system. All that’s required is to commission one of London’s huge Crossrail tunnelling machines and away we go. Once the traffic loop has been diverted from in front of the Queen’s Hotel the enlarged pedestrianised area would house the main entrance to the system. With some forward planning the initial linking infrastructure to City Square and South Bank could be fashioned during our upcoming £500m railway station refurbishment. As in London, our new tube would only need to remain underground where necessary, mainly within the proposed Clean Air Zone, and could then join existing overground lines. I do wonder which will happen first though – our underground, or Neil’s prediction that aliens will land. Perhaps the aliens will be flying pigs. Rail fares rise adds insult to injury in north Bob Buxton, Yorkshire Party. WHY must Yorkshire suffer from this blanket increase in rail fares when the imbalance in investment between London and Yorkshire is so great? Remember, the transport infrastructure spending per person in London is ten times greater than that in Yorkshire and yet fares still rise to astronomical levels. The Ripon Line, the Otley Loop and many other Yorkshire railways were destroyed by the Beeching axe. Scotland has reversed many such cuts, including the Borders Railway, but not one line has been replaced in Yorkshire. A proper, powerful devolution deal for Yorkshire would give us the same control over our destiny which Scotland already has. The effects of under-investment are visible every day in Leeds, including in the congestion along the A65. While London gets £15bn spent on Crossrail, Leeds remains the largest city in the EU without a mass transit system and, consequently, suffers some of the worst air pollution. Before any increase in fares, we need an expert-led Leeds-Bradford Transport Review and solid progress instead of further politically led white elephants, like the poorly planned Leeds-Bradford Airport road and the abandoned Trolleybus scheme. Metro system can bring clean air to Leeds James Bovington, by email I have just completed the city council consultation on how charging polluting vehicles entering the central area could improve the overall air quality in Leeds. This is very much the ‘stick’ approach with polluting vehicles rightly charged quite high fees, in effect taxes. However there is little mention of any ‘carrot’. Only a metro system with a fully electrified local rail network complemented by a tram system in areas without rail will bring the needed improvements in air quality. I for one as an asthmatic would welcome this.( https://surveys.leeds.gov.uk/s/AirQualityConsultation2018 ) Our public transport is essentially the same as in the 1960s when as a small boy I was fascinated by the dark green buses of LCT. Little did I know that only a dozen or so years before our short-sighted city council had got rid of a tram network which could have developed into an urban light rail system. Of course Leeds wasn’t the only city to be overtaken by this nonsense but many places in both Britain and France have since developed urban metro systems which contribute to a high quality civic environment, with Liverpool, Glasgow and Tyneside constructing central area underground networks allowing passengers to reach major traffic objectives directly. For example passengers in Newcastle can get off the ‘Metro’ at Monument and be straight into Eldon Square shopping centre. Yet Leeds had its own ambitious and better plans involving putting single deck trams underground which would have been the basis of a modern urban metro. Your readers have frequently seen the illustration of the proposed art deco style underground station at Leeds City Square. Such a shame that this wasn’t developed - same old story in Leeds lack of ambition and unwillingness to invest. Nevertheless the clean air proposals are a step in the right direction. I understand that bus services in Leeds will shortly allow contactless card payments so that should speed up the service. However why not do as London and make all buses cashless? Why not, for that matter, emulate our nation’s capital by planning for our own CrossRail tunnel, as I have frequently advocated. Leeds councillors take note, fortune favours the brave. What are visitors first impressions? Neville Atkinson, Horsforth We recently flew into Leeds Bradford Airport on a cold dark December night and walked from the plane, without cover, and then down a long cold draughty corridor up four flights of stairs then bizarrely down an escalator. After collecting our luggage, I was surprised to see the queue waiting for the Arrow taxis outside the designated building (the building was full) thank goodness it wasn’t raining or snowing. We arranged to be picked up and paid £3 for the privilege for that. A few months ago in your columns the CEO of LBA suggested readers should not write to YEP but send comments directly to him, I wonder why? And the suggestion of running a train service directly to the airport is absurd. I wonder what international visitors think of their first impressions of Yorkshire? We need a sense of faith Jaimes Lewis Moran, by email Regardless of a person’s circumstances they will at some point in life need a sense of faith. This faith doesn’t necessarily need to be in particular religion but it does help in some cases. What I do mean however, is that more people need to have faith and believe in their own abilities and capacity for success. Admittedly this isn’t an easy thing to achieve, but how else can a person be successful in life if they don’t have a sense of faith? There’s a quote that says “you may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” (Mahatma Gandhi) and that “All things are possible for one who believes.” (Mark 9:23) Let us know what you think THE Yorkshire Evening Post wants you to share your views with other readers. To join the debate, email yep.newsdesk@ypn.co.uk Please keep letters under 300 words.