West End Letters: Crossrail | London Underground | public transport | underinvested

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 20 November 2009

All Londoners should support Crossrail

What’s happened to objective journalism (Lorry load of trouble, November 13)?
Crossrail is vital to meeting London’s transport needs for future generations in a sustainable manner, especially as our rail public transport systems have suffered from decades of underinvestment.
Where would London be today if our Victorian forbears hadn’t had the courage to invest in the Underground? And where would Paris be if they hadn’t started the equivalent of Crossrail in 1962?
Crossrail should be supported by all Londoners, especially those who live close enough to stations to benefit from it directly.
Yet your reporting is thoroughly sensationalistic.
Fifty lorries a day on roads which see 6,000 vehicle movements in a 12-hour period hardly constitutes roads, in your words, “swamped” with HGVs. Nor do you offer any proof of “traffic chaos, cycle deaths and deafening noise”, except that some nimbys have said so.
They are, of course, using your paper to further their short-term ends, but an objective journalist would have reported other views as well, such as those of Crossrail.
The needs of the West End would be better served if you promoted intelligent debate instead of opting for easy sensationalism.
Michael Carley
Hastings Street, WC1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment: