SIR: It is wrong to suggest that the North-west is being short-changed because the early morning Eurostar connecting train from Manchester Piccadilly to London's Waterloo Station is being taken off. Because this train only carried Eurostar passengers, it loaded very lightly and, in order to make it more viable, it was routed via Birmingham, with a total of nine stops between Manchester and London. This, together with the roundabout route it had to take at the London end in order to get into Waterloo Station - not the natural terminus for any train from the North - meant that it took just over four hours to make the journey. It was, and is, perfectly possible to leave Manchester almost an hour after the Eurostar connection was due out, on an ordinary Euston train, allowing reasonable time to cross London, and still get to Waterloo in ample time to catch the same connecting services forward to Paris and Brussels. If you treat yourself to a taxi between Euston and Waterloo, you could, at a pinch, leave two hours later, at least for the Paris connection.

There is, however, no possibility of existing West Coast services to Euston being extended to Waterloo, as one of your correspondents suggested. Although a physical connection between British Rail and the Underground tunnels, which are mainly less than 12 feet in diameter, are far too small to accommodate main line trains, nor are they equipped with the high voltage alternating current overhead power supply equipment which main line trains use. Conversely, Manchester to London trains are not dual voltage and cannot run on the low voltage direct current third rail system the Underground uses. And the only cross-London tunnel which could accommodate main line stock goes nowhere near the Euston line north of the Thames, and nowhere near Waterloo south of it.

Cllr Peter D Johnston

Kendal Road, Bolton

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