HS2

very near a strip of tarmac near Tamworth close to the heart of the sprinters

Have you looked at the official route plans? I was looking at the plans last night from home so cant link now, but all of the route drawings are available from the main HS2 website. Are you sure it is HS2 and not the spur link from Liverpool, which I thought was 'slow rail'. This map from the BBC suggests HS2 to Manchester, keying into the West Coast mainline upto Wigan & Liverpool via convensional rail. There has been no suggestion of HS2 to Liverpool or Wigan, so that suggest to me its a new connecting railway, presumably to Crewe. ISTR the Picadilly route left Manchester through Fallowfield/Didsbury, south to the Airport, before swinging towards Lymm and then roughly following the A556 south. I dont recall it crossing the Mersey/ ship canal or getting up to the East Lancs. Edited by - TomB on 30 Jan 2013 14:12:37

Quote:very near a strip of tarmac near Tamworth close to the heart of the sprinters Surely that's a good thing. The NIMBY's who say the track causes too much noise might have other things to worry about now. Alex

But look on the bright side. Those in Wigan can leave quicker

Yeah Sure! abirtwisle..... I'm no nimby but it's coming 100 yds away from our front door and we're just a touch @+%^£"!&ed OFF ! Not so much the finished product that's a worry but the years and years of traffic chaos, and engineering work involved which will cripple the roads round us. Best bit is - we're in Staffordshire, The route runs right through Staffs from top to bottom and guess which county isn't even getting a station ? To take advantage of HS2 we'll need to get on a train, go north to Manchester then come back again, waving to our house as we go past at 225 MPH.... %^$£"*(((^%$"&**(*()() !!!!!!!!!! ( I'm trying to remain calm !)

Trains are going to pass 600m from our house, so we will have normal service about a mile away and HS2 the other. Hopefully HS2 will go through a tunnel so as not to make too much noise.

Passes about 1/2 mile from us too with not much more than fields in between. Just hope the service ends up better than the pendolinos - the one I'm on right now has lost it's seat reservations and is missing two carriages so as a consequence is packed. To make matters worse they can't take cards in the shop and its running late

"HS2 Plus": first report from the new Chair. The lack of a direct link through Euston/ St Pancras is disappointing and surprising. Jonathan