It's fascinating. I was initially very anti, not least because HS2 goes right through two areas where I spent my childhood (Leamington/Kenilworth area and Amersham) and the damage, at first glance, looked horrendous. However, over the last couple of years, as Ive looked into it and had the opportunity to talk in detail about it with a close friend of 40+ years who knows the scheme inside out (he's a specialist railway journo, author, "media whore" and magazine editor etc etc), I have been convinced of the positive impact of HS2 and NPR. What has been abundantly clear is that the level of misinformation is staggering, not helped by the woeful HS2 Ltd who appear to have cornered the market in inept PR activity. The ability to create greater capacity, put more freight onto the rails and separate out different types of train activity seems to me to be compelling and will enable local links to be more effective. I dont subscribe to the notion that it will be economically, socially and politically disruptive.
