UK Rail,- HS 2 to the north. Logs across the line...

No, not logs but the good citizens of Buckinghamshire in particular. From the shrill noises of the Stop HS2 campaigners backed by Buckinghamshire County Council, Aylesbury Vale District Council, Buckinghamshire Conservatives and others, one would think that the end of the world was nigh. Reminscent of some of the anti-railway campaigns by local landowners from the 1850s onwards and the more recent 1960's anti Concorde hysteria ,otherwise seemingly quite sensible people are enraged and fulminating about the devastation this very narrow 2 track line will cut for a very few miles (most of it in tunnels and cuttings) through a pleasant Chiltern valley. One would have thought that the entire range of the hills was about to be concreted over. In fact a tiny portion and proportion will be touched and even then the new line will blend pretty well with nearly all of the landscape. The much wider 4 track West Coast Main Line a few miles further north is hardly noticed in most places.

Lurid warnings dressed up as indisputable truths abound. The goats at the Buckinghamshire Goat Centre will be disturbed. Royal horses several miles away could be affected. It will be impossible to work on the trains so much they will be swaying about. Almost every day some new and horrifying fear is unveiled somewhere.

With over £1 million in their vaults the "No" campaigners have been careful to shield themselves from accusations of Nimbyism. They know that naked self interest would be fatal .Instead they proclaim that it's not the disliked local alignment but the whole case for the line that they are opposing . "No business case", "No environmental case" say the posters. Suggestions that this is simply not true are treated with incredulity.

Up North, after a long silence ,they have belatedly revolted against taking all the southern noise lying down and come out fighting. Councils and business groups are now getting more vocal and higher profile in their support for the project. Posters proclaiming "Our jobs not their lawns" have appeared. These have brought shouts of "Class War. Offside. Not Fair " from the outraged southerners whose greater access, formally and informally to Westminster and those who work there is of course not unfair. Nor apparently is the influence of the string of high well known celebs, politicians, media and business people who happen to live in and around the Chilterns who can drop words "in the right ears".

Conservative MPs, fearful of receiving P45s after the next election if they don't abandon national interests and party policy and instead fight local corners, say they will vote against the government. What are they afraid of? The biggest sanction is likely to be just a drop off in the number of local dinner invitations. Who else are voters turned off by their support for national party policy on HS 2 going to vote for? Labour? That will be the day in the Chilterns and anyway it was a Labour scheme introduced by the counter-British national culture , "Let's get things done" Lord Adonis. Ed may wobble a bit and "review" support depending on how the maths of the votes look. He will want to feel everybody's pain but most of all where it might gain him a seat or two. Sorry North but he reckons he's got you in the bag already so that could push him in the direction you don't want but chances are it won't matter much anyway.

The HS2 consultation period closed at the end of July. The Minister's decision is expected in December. If it's a "Yes" construction will begin in 2016 ,nearly 5 years later ,assuming that planning processes have been satisfactorily cleared. That is reckoned to be going some as numerous local feet will be outstretched to try to derail the scheme. The actual opening of the first section to Birmingham would be ten years later,in 2026, with the western and eastern prongs to Manchester and Leeds maybe by 2036, some ten years beyond that.

Meanwhile the West and East Coast main lines are beginning to burst at the seams and scope for needed capacity increases particularly in outer London commuter areas such as Northampton are very limited. With or without a high speed line ,another new route to the north is needed and the HS formula which takes very fast limited stop passenger trains away from the rest on a truly 21st century railway gives the best return. Any mix of fast and slow trains on the same lines means they get in each others way and line occupancy plummets. A conventional line would not therefore be nearly as good a solution. Laying additional tracks alongside existing ones is almost impossible due to the string of conurbations on the way. It would also add huge complexity to existing junctions. These proliferate particularly on the West Coast main line and its tributaries.

The venom, misinformation and disinformation streaming out of the Chilterns must be politely listened to but gently set aside in a calm and rational manner. Everything possible has been done to make the route as little intrusive as possible. In the pleasant pastures, woodlands, villages and towns of the Chilterns there is not a great understanding of or even interest in the needs of the North. Indeed, as mentioned above, there is little interest in even hearing about it. HS 2 supporters "up there" need to promulgate and explain their case more loudly and clearly. They have far fewer informal contacts in the Westminster and Home Counties corridors of power and far less money in the kitty. That doesn't make their task easy. Largely they see a "Yes" decision as just common sense which must prevail. The politicians and planners should not let them down. It would be a national calamity if they did so as a growing Britain would then slowly strangle itself with an inadequate and outdated rail and road system. There's the killing off of the privately funded domestic air links from London too. That's a story for another day.