PETER HITCHENS: I love railways and (aged 12) cried tears of rage and sorrow when Dr Beeching ripped them up. But even I can see that HS2 is madness

This is Peter Hitchenss Mail on Sunday column

As a small boy, I actually cried when they tore up the railways. It was fury as much as it was sorrow. I could see it was wrong and stupid, but nobody else could.
Railways were not just beautiful and perfectly suited to our intimate, gentle landscape.

They were plainly far safer and more efficient than horrible cars and grinding, stinking lorries, with their endless scraping, scouring traffic noise that we have had to endure ever since, everywhere...