High Speed 2 - London to Birmingham high speed train route announced
The London to Birmingham high speed train route (HS2) was announced by the Government on 20 December 2010. The preferred route (originally published in March 2010 and optimised in September 2010) has been amended after protests about its impact on homes and the countryside.
The Government's Transport Secretary (Philip Hammond MP) has defended the plan to build the high speed rail line and has been reported as saying that there would be compensation for those whose homes have to be destroyed to create the line and also for those whose homes were set to lose value.
The public consultation phase for the plans is due between February and July 2011. With the launch of the consultation phase, noise contour maps are expected to be made available for the final preferred route.
It is inevitable that there has been and will continue to be opposition to HS2, with noise being one of the main causes of concern for those potentially affected by the final preferred route, during both construction operations and operational rail noise.
Many action groups have been formed to protest about the route and a number of these have made admirable attempts to get to grips with the technical terminology and potential impacts of environmental noise associated with HS2. People will be trying to understand the impact of rail noise levels averaged over a period, maximum noise levels caused by individual trains and sonic boom which could cause an explosion like "bang" at rail tunnel exit portals.
For any individual or group in a particular area, the detail they would like to see may not be available for some time or not in a format that they can readily understand. CPRE have stated "Engagement can be a time-consuming and expensive process. Funding of third party groups to seek expert advice and involve the local community is needed to secure fairness and legitimacy. Front-loading the process, by giving community groups more of a say early on, could save valuable time later on during the Hybrid Bill procedure, through which HS2 like HS1 and Crossrail before it would proceed."
Dr Paul Cockcroft of WBM was one member of the Independent Engineering Experts' team for Dublin Metro North, a new railway line to run partly above ground and partly in tunnels from the centre of Dublin out to the airport and further north. The work of the Experts' team helped to enable residents to more clearly express their questions and concerns to the developer (via the expert team) and the developer to understand and respond to those questions and concerns. Even though parties agreed to disagree on much about Dublin Metro North, this facilitative approach ensured that accessible information was available to both the residents (about the development) and the developer (about the legitimate fears and questions of residents); there was a common understanding of the 'facts' and a shared vocabulary was developed.
See the following link for more information:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/highspeedrail/
Please note that WBM accepts no responsibility for, nor endorses the content of external websites.
Posted Date: 17th Jan 2011