I WRITE with reference to the article in yesterday’s Oxford Mail about the Mayor of Oxford’s journey, largely by rail, to Bonn. While she is to be commended for travelling in this way, it is nothing new. Some of us have been doing this for years.

This is because on the continent there is a system of high speed lines, started by the French some 30 years ago, but copied by the Germans, the Italians, the Spanish and many more.

It has now grown to the point where the national high speed systems are beginning to link up to provide high speed international journeys, for example from France across Belgium and into Holland. It is thus possible to get from England to Italy in a day without the need to fly.

I personally value this because I loathe flying, and, in particular, having to breath the stale recycled air one gets in an airliner.

In some places on the continent high speed lines have actually killed off short haul airline routes.

For example it is not longer possible to fly from Paris to Lyon because the TGV is quicker and cheaper; the whole journey in this case takes only two hours in smooth air conditioned comfort, and with a bar if you wish to stretch your legs.

I personally look forward to us having a UK wide system of high speed lines, so that it would be possible to get to, say, Glasgow from Oxford in well under three hours. However, as we have seen for all sorts of reasons (and lack of political will is a big one) progress has been very slow, with only one line (from near Dover to London) actually open.

I am of the opinion that many of the objections of those opposed to HS2 from London to Birmingham and the North have been greatly overblown.

Opponents say the business case does not stack up, but the reply to that is that you can get the business case to come up with whatever you like depending on the assumptions you build into it.

Then there is the issue of noise and intrusion. But all this was said when HS1 was being built. Today there is hardly a peep about it, the use of tunnels, cuttings and noise baffles has dealt with all the more intrusive problems. So bring on a British system.

Bob Johnston, Councillor for Radley, Vale of White Horse District Council