IN the year 1903, a rail spur opened in Lochaber in Scotland.

It ran from Spean Bridge to Fort Augustus and was 23 miles in extent and single track.

The cost, apart from rolling stock, was £344,000.

So £15,000 a mile, or roughly £3 a foot.

The projected cost of HS2 is now £106 billion.

For 500 miles of track therefore, a million pounds gets us 25 feet!

Or £40,000 a foot.

Enough said.

Richard Buckley

Radipole Lane

Weymouth