Great Western’s Paddington disruption on October 17 reminds us our rail network lacks resilience and flexibility.

It has no spare capacity and too few alternative routes to divert passengers when mishaps occur.

How would Chiltern passengers cope if Marylebone were disrupted? Oxford passengers can use Paddington, Birmingham passengers can use Euston, but most Chiltern passengers have no alternative London route.

The line through Wycombe used to serve Paddington as well as Marylebone. But its Northolt - Paddington link is now little used, and will be destroyed to build HS2.

Wycombe had another Great Western link at Maidenhead. A huge sign on High Wycombe station still says ‘Junction for the Marlow and Maidenhead lines’. The line went via Bourne End. But in 1970 British Rail removed five miles of track from there to Wycombe.

Until the 1960s and ‘70s most main lines had junctions and links with each other, whereby passengers could be diverted and disruption reduced. Many of those links were short. Rebuilding them is affordable.

UK rail passenger numbers have doubled in two decades.

Any disruption is costly. Yet the DfT refuses to increase network flexibility.

Instead, since 2009 the DfT has wasted nine years and £4 billion planning HS2, which is inflexible and will increase the network’s vulnerability to disruption.

HS2 will have no junction with any other line between London and Birmingham. Disruption anywhere on HS2 will cripple all of it.

And if HS2 ever reaches Manchester and Leeds, it will have wasted at least £80 billion.

Building flexible rail links such as Bourne End - Wycombe would cost far less per mile than HS2. HS2 is Britain’s worst value rail investment for more than a century.

To invest enough in the railways we need, cancelling HS2 is key. And there is just enough time to do so.

Hugh Jaeger, Park Close, Oxford