From: Richard Porter
Topic: HS2 route

We really don’t need yet another route from Heathrow to London. In any case the M40 still cuts through the Chilterns.

HS2 Ltd’s Old Oak Common interchange would be excellent if linked to the WCML at Willesden Junction by reinstating the main line station.

There would be no need to go to Euston at all as very few passengers will actually have final destinations in the Euston area. The line should go in a new tunnel to link up with HS1. Trains not continuing to the Continent should terminate at Stratford International, with the possibility of going up the East Coast from there in the future.

Above all we just need to get on with it. Putting more of the line in tunnel won’t passify the NIMBYs in Bucks so why force passengers to travel in tunnels and cuttings, or between high bunds and plantations for much of the journey? I don’t think the Settle & Carlisle line has had a detrimental effect on the countryside of Cumbria, though no doubt there were objectors when it was built.