Does not easily connect to the continent  Would it not be nice to be able to travel from Edinburgh straight through to Paris without having to stop in London? This was part of the initial dream of the Channel Tunnel with proposals for regional Eurostar services. [1] Unfortunately HS2 will not provide this option. There is a proposed link but it is currently single track and unlikely to be enough even to meet demand for domestic services running around London let alone international services from Birmingham and Manchester. [2] The much more sensible option of not having a terminal station, or at least some through platforms, has been ignored.  [1] BBC News, ‘Regions ‘cheated’ over Eurostar’, 27 January 1999,   [2] Railnews, ‘Rethink urged over 'absurd' HS2-HS1 link’, 1 June 2013,