The new tunnel plan for HS2 could appease some environmental protestors, as well as MPs whose constituencies are affected by the proposed route.

The decision is also set to be delayed until mid January to provide sufficient time for a feasibility study and for the environmental impact to be assessed, but more importantly, to have longer to convince opponents to accept the project.

Will this be enough time, and enough measures to mitigate disruption to the landscape?

There are also new concerns about the funding needed for the new tunnel, and how this will impact on the rest of the project. £500m is a very large amount to conveniently ‘find’ lying about or from savings alone. It also raises the question that if this money could be achieved through savings, then why were these savings not made in the original plans?