Whatever next, a ladder to the moon?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, I've just heard that the Government is going to waste £75 million on a feasibility study for the building of a 25-mile long road tunnel between Sheffield and Manchester, which would be the longest in the world.
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lunar moon

What next, a ladder to the moon?

The answer to the problem of a totally inadequate road is quite simple.

Replace it with an adequate one, ie a six-lane motorway.

We are not talking mountains the size of those in The Alps or The Rockies here.

These are merely over-sized hills called The Pennines.

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The Swiss and other countries with mountains manage to do it in much more rugged terrain, and would only build a tunnel if there was a massive 20,000ft mountain in the way and no other alternative.

People will say we can’t do this because it goes right through a National Park.

I have spent most of my life walking in The Peak District, and I love it dearly, but it doesn’t compare to the scenery I have driven through in The Rockies on six-lane highways.

The road didn’t detract from the scenery whatsoever.

This feasibility study is an expensive example of kicking the ball into the long grass, because it is never going to be built.

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The only tunnel that will be built is another cross-London link going from north to south.

This will cost an estimated £24 billion, adding to the £12bn for the first one.

If we just sit back and wait for this study to come to its inevitable conclusion that building a tunnel is not feasible we will have lost several years and thousands of jobs to the well- connected Leeds.

You at The Star, local politicians and business people should all be campaigning to tell the government that we want a road, and we want it now.

JE Steele

by email

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The Chancellor should forget about opening up the high-speed rail service between Manchester and Leeds.

He should be improving the shocking rail services.

Money for the high-speed rail service would be better spent on a Pennine motorway tunnel linking Sheffield and all the other towns around Sheffield direct to Manchester.

J Bull

S5