HS2 & Greenford - The Parish of Greenford Magna

One thing that is certain is that, if the route as proposed goesahead, there will be massive engineering works including newbridges at every point that the route crosses a road(Mandeville Road, Northolt, Oldfield Lane North, Lyon Way,Greenford Road, Horsenden Lane South, Bideford Avenue,Alperton Lane, Hanger Lane (at a recent public meeting it wassuggested that this would be closed for 18 months, with localdiversions) – this is likely to cause huge traffic disruption. Andnew bridges will be needed over the Grand Union Canal andthe River Brent too.There are also reports that properties close to the route arenow reduced in value and will be more difficult to sell.Even though the route has been announced by JustineGreening, the Secretary of State for Transport we are toldthat is it is not a done deal and there is still a possibility ofchanges to the route …thanks to a vigorous campaign duringthe “consultation” phase, the route was changed in Ruislip,where it will now be tunnelled. There needs to be furtherconsultation, impact analysis, an Act of Parliament, before itcan progress. If the project plan is followed then constructionwill commence in 2016, and the line will open in 2026. Thereare bound to be test trains before then.There is a local campaign - Northolt, Greenford & Perivaleresidents are now campaigning either for the route to bechanged, or at the very least tunnelled through the area. Atunnel would reduce the impact, although it would still need tobe dug, so there will be noise and disturbance etc whilst thework is in progress.You can also find more information on the HS2 websitehttp://www.hs2.org.uk/ - and there's a website for thenational campaign against the project - http://stophs2.org/and, locally a Twitter Campaign,https://twitter.com/#%21/StopHS2_LDN .Andy Pedley