27-May-2014,
updated 26-Jan-2018

Local Impact

The Route

The route of HS2 directly affects Amersham and our neighbouring towns, villages and countryside. These include Denham, Chalfont St Peter, Chalfont St Giles, Little Missenden, Great Missenden, Hyde Heath and South Heath, Potter Row, The Lee, Wendover, Stoke Mandeville, Stone, Waddesdon, Quainton, Calvert and Twyford.

Latest Developments

More details of the construction plans have been made public ( Nov 2012 ) at the Community Forums - see this page for the latest information.

Maps - added 260118

Despite what Google may find, the maps below are out of date. Later maps can be found on our Environmental Statement pages, here. The contractors are currently working on the detailed design.

Maps of all sections of the route can also be found on the Chilterns Conservation Board website, which carries further information about the impact of HS2 on the Chilterns

• In January, some adjustments to the route were announced - shown here - supposedly to ‘mitigate’ local impacts. These included the tunnel by which HS2 approaches Amersham Old Town. The tunnel now skirts Amersham just beyond the Jaguar Garage, running on under the lake at Shardeloes. For engineering reasons, the tunnel has been extended by one and a half miles to emerge opposite Little Missenden, close to Hyde Heath.
• The construction of permanent tunnel ventilation shafts (such as those at Chalfont St Giles and opposite Shardeloes) will be ugly reminders of what lies beneath us.
• Other construction changes have left our neighbours – such as Hyde Heath and South Heath – significantly worse off than before. The cost of alterations, such as the extension of the Amersham tunnel, has been met at the expense of others along the line. Cuttings have been made considerably shallower – thus reducing the amount of spoil to be excavated and disposed of. In many instances embankments have been raised to act as a dumping ground for spoil – thus increasing the visual intrusion of the line. As a result of such “improvements”, ugly gantries will be exposed and noise will be greater.

Construction

Construction of HS2 is due to begin in 2016. Work will last up to five years and may be carried out round-the-clock, 7 days a week. It will have a huge impact on us all.

• There will be major disruption as machinery, materials and workers are brought in to construct the tunnels, embankments, cuttings and viaducts along our Chilterns section of the line.
• Construction work will generate noise, light pollution, dust in the air and mud on the roads.
• The Chilterns Conservation Board estimates that 12 million cubic metres of spoil will be produced from the tunnels and construction works – far more than can be absorbed on other parts of the line.
• Road closures (now marked on route maps) show many routes will be permanently disrupted.
• The character of our towns and villages will change as shoppers and walkers give way to construction workers. Tourism, on which many local businesses rely, will be severely affected.

The government has not yet carried out an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) in relation to the construction of HS2, & the costs to local communities casued by the disruption are not taken into account when assessing the 'benefits' of HS2 .

Environment

The Chilterns Conservation Board has calculated that:

• Over 17 hectares of woodland will be lost in the Chilterns, much of it local to Amersham. 12 hectares are ancient woodland, established before 1600. (A hectare is 11,960 sq yards or 10,000 sq metres.)
• In all, some 63 hectares of woodland will be adversely affected - 80% of which is ancient woodland. Many local wildlife species will be endangered as migration patterns are disrupted.

The Chiltern Society has made a detailed analysis of the impact on the local geology. It concludes that:

• The tunnel will cut though complex structures of chalk, potentially causing enormous damage to natural underground reservoirs which serve a large proportion of the Home Counties.
• The tunnel is likely to disturb the delicate balance of the river Misbourne. The river may disappear and the lake at Shardeloes may dry up.

See this article about the historic landscape of the Misbourne valley

HS2 in Operation

Should the proposed timeline for delivering HS2 run to schedule, trains would start operating soon after completion of the work in 2026.

• When fully operational, there will be a train every two minutes, travelling of speeds of up to 400 km/h.
• Noise and vibration will be major issues. A sound recording can be heard today.
• HS2 services will use more than twice the electricity of current 200 km/h trains. Power lines will be suspended from metal gantries every 60 metres on both sides of the track.
• New pylons will be needed to deliver the power to the track.