HEART OF ENGLAND WAY TO BE DEALT SERIOUS BLOW BY RAIL EXPANSION (H S 2 LINE)
Announced last week by Lord Adonis the Secretary of State for Transport the favoured route for Britain's next Hi-speed rail line will carve through and even run along part of the celebrated rural long distance route making it impossible to keep to the current route.
Chairman of Heart of England Way Association Graham Rothery said today (14 March 2010) "This is an amazing discovery which is coming totally out of the blue. I expected the line from London to come via Heathrow and then probably further west to Reading and north then to Birmingham - the cutting through Berkswell near to Coventry will see a new bridge section and of course a huge scar cut out of some very beautiful landscape where the existing main railway line is only a few hundred yards away. But, worse is to come.
Now that is on the main route from London to the new interchange at the NEC, and the route was on the news so I was half expecting some impact. It is what else the documents and maps show, as I had not even realised the Y route split would bring the line up from the NEC from Water Orton through Middleton and Canwell to Lichfield and join the WCML just two miles from where I live!
It is this extension which brings the Heart of England Way on a collision course with the new line. At Drayton Lane the route will be cut in two with a deep cutting - so much for hoping to restore the old Heathley Lane route as that will be blighted further, then the line will slice north through Hints Farm and Bangley to slice through Bucks Head Farm near Hints - prime arable farmland as well as the point where HoEW crosses the old A5. No wonder the planning request to extract more sand and gravel here was withdrawn - no doubt his Lordship tipped the wink on the route to the Gravel company?
Historic and quite natural Freeford Gallops the site for the Annual Sheriffs Ride races in Lichfield now get wiped out as a cutting slices a big part of the Bridleway off the land.
What can we do? Protest would be useful! It is going to be enquiry and more as well as possibly not getting full support from the Councils - Berkswell may be a lost cause as it is the main and initial route but maybe that can be influenced - some where we will have to contend with the route I suspect. However the route to join the WCML could be done much better and clearly could follow the existing lines from Water Orton to Tamworth where a large loop could connect both the West Coast Main Line and the Midland Railway so connecting Derby, Sheffield, Manchester as well as Liverpool and Stoke. The widening of the WCML is all through the Trent Valley and would enable this to happen and get extra trains on the WMCL lines 10 miles further east.
I am dedicated to Heart of England Way and I will do all I can to ensure our route is preserved as best I can in the future said Graham Rothery
NO ACCOMMODATION LIST
We have to announce that since the recent death of John Roberts of Walkways Publications the HoEW Accommodation list is not going to be available from him. This was kept as part of his broader publishing business.
We do not hold a list ourselves as we do not have the resources to keep such a list up to date.
