The Campaign to Protect Rural England has commented on the HS2 proposal here
Whilst being neither for or against it, much the same points are made as have been given on this site, only more cogently, plus a few more into the bargain. On the positive side, it notes that construction of the line could create opportunities for environmental improvement.
There are some good points in there - clearly excluding those whose houses are directly affected by the new line (if ever built) one major sticking point will be the effect on the rural areas.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about the possibility of planting trees along the line as a noise (and visible impact) reduction feature. There would have to be a gap between track and woods to reduce the possibility of 'leaves on the line' to a suitably small likelyhood; so the additional land area purchase cost would be considerable - I wonder how the cost of this land purchase would compare with the tunneling they propose in the "Five Tests for High Speed Rail" section. I'd prefer trees.
As far as noise goes noise barriers are easy to set up (and don't have to be full height - a lot of the unpleasent noise comes from the wheel/rail - so 4ft barriers still have a good effect) - but they still look dreaful - perhaps now is the time to start campaigning for a "railway hedgerow" on this new line.