High speed rail and the Trust

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Latest news: We have published our response to the Government’s consultation on High Speed Rail. The Trust remains opposed to the existing route because of the impact on the Chilterns and at Hartwell House near Aylesbury. If the scheme goes ahead we are calling on the Government to make it the greenest high speed rail link possible including the construction of a tunnel to protect Hartwell House.

The Government has now published details of the proposed route for the first phase of its planned high speed rail network to link London to the West Midlands, Manchester and Leeds. The route has been significantly redrawn and, at the Trust’s Hartwell House, the line has been moved by 75m - 100m and will now be out of sight from the house.

However, the line would still pass across inalienable Trust-held land, and despite being in a deeper cutting with thicker planting, there is still likely to be a considerable intrusion from the noise of passing trains. The Government will consult soon on the full business case for the project.

This is a huge issue for the country and for the local people affected in the Chilterns and up through the Midlands and beyond. The proposed route of HS2 will cause serious and significant impacts on the landscape, local communities and rare sense of tranquillity which is so precious in particular to the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Responding to the most recent announcement, Ben Cowell, Acting External Affairs Director, said:

'The general principle of developing rail infrastructure over road and air is a good one, but surely not at any cost. Like many, we’re therefore yet to be convinced that the overall business case for HS2 stacks up environmentally, financially and socially. The rationale for the specific route will need detailed scrutiny, and we will need to understand how alternative routes were considered and why they were rejected.

'If there is going to be a new high speed line, we believe it should be the 'greenest ever'. The Trust couldn’t possibly support in principle a route that went through important protected landscapes like the Chilterns AONB.  However, if it must go through the Chilterns and other special areas, we expect Government to take the greatest possible efforts to mitigate damaging impacts. We are pleased that alterations have been made to the route that address some of these impacts. At Hartwell House we still think that HS2 will be extremely damaging, and are naturally concerned that the route involves land held inalienably by the Trust. Even if it is expensive, a tunnel at Hartwell may be the best solution to limiting the impacts, both on the Hartwell landscape and on nearby Aylesbury.'