HS2 Photo Diary - Chiltern Society

HS2

The construction of the HS2 high speed railway line will have a major impact on the Central Chilterns and the Colne Valley Regional Park. Some of these locations will never be the same again and we will keep a record of the changes as construction progresses.

Chiltern Society member Keith Hoffmeister has been taking photographs at a number of locations since plans were first announced in 2010. He is now covering the construction phase and will eventually show the completed phase 1 of the project when trains start to run between Old Oak Common and Birmingham anytime between 2029 and 2033. (Construction of the route beyond Birmingham was cancelled in 2023).

The Society will host a series of online update presentations as construction continues. You can view the first one (January 2021) here, the second one (July 2021) here, the third one (January 2022) here, the fourth one (July 2022) here, the fifth one (January 2023) here. The sixth one (July 2023) is available here. The latest presentation (January 2024) is available here.

Please note that these videos will load into a new window.

You can view a virtual fly-through along the route across the Chilterns and the Vale of Aylesbury below.

Impact locations

The locations are in geographical order northwards from the Colne Valley Regional Park to Wendover. Where given, directions are in relation to the route. North is towards Birmingham and south towards London.

The enabling works contactors are Fusion JV (Morgan Sindall, BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman)

Construction contractors for the Colne Valley viaduct and the Chiltern tunnel are Align JV (Bouygues Travaux Publics, VolkerFitzpatrick, Sir Robert McAlpine)

Construction contractors north of the Chiltern tunnel are EKFB JV (Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial Construction and BAM Nuttall)

Note: PRoW refers to Public Rights of Way, i.e., public footpaths and bridleways. TBMs refers to tunnel boring machines (named Florence and Cecilia).