It seems the HS2 railway scheme has been given the green light and its coming to a village near you very soon.

My thoughts go out to those affected by the scheme indeed their lives will never be the same once the noise of the trains clanking past at 250mph shatters the peace of the Chilterns countryside.

Of course just to build the line there will be years of noise and disturbance to contend with first.

Thankfully Wycombe escaped this nightmare indeed if it hadn’t been for the sharp bends at Wycombe station I fear things may have been very different and our town may have been blighted with the terrible menace instead.

Despite thousands of people opposing the scheme their views have been ignored and the scheme has been approved which once more shows the contempt the powers that be have for the opinion of local residents.

Not only are peoples lives going to be ruined but the countryside will be damaged irreparably as well not to mention the disturbance to wildlife along the route.

At a cost of over £33bn this is undoubtedly the largest railway building scheme in decades however there is a difference between the HS2 scheme and the other main lines.

While the GWR, East Coast, West Coast and Great Central railways were constructed using British knowledge and engineering know how the HS2 scheme is likely to have more foreign engineering input than ever before.

Back in the 1970's the development of the world beating InterCity125 showed just what our railways engineers could do but sadly they took a wrong turn and hit the buffers with the leaning Advanced Passenger Train (APT).

Once Britain lead the world in railway engineering but now we are trailing severely behind.

The real shame behind HS2 is that is shows up that foreign countries have overtaken us and we have become second rate in a technology that was invented in this country and exported to the world.

I sometimes wonder why we heed the HS2 at all, indeed in this modern age meetings take place via the newfangled video phones and other modern technology. The age of people meeting face to face is over.

In the Netherlands they also built a very comparable high speed rail service (see link below) and it was a complete flop with passengers preferring to travel on the slower existing routes. Why should our service fare any better?

In my opinion the money would have been better spent on improving the existing railway infrastructure rather then ruining the fine English countryside.

To sum up the construction of HS2 is not only a sad day for the people and wildlife living along the route but its also a sad day for British engineering.

What do you think?

“High-speed rail: A £250m lesson for Britain's rail enthusiasts”: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/9000166/High-speed-rail-A-250m-lesson-for-Britains-rail-enthusiasts.html

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