Major transport projects

High Speed 2 (HS2) is a proposed high-speed railway between London and the Midlands (phase1) with possible future extensions to the north of England.

A report in March 2010 proposed that all trains would stop at a west London "Crossrail interchange" near Old Oak Common in Acton and Acton Main Line stations, with connections for Crossrail, Heathrow Express and services on the Great Western Main Line to Heathrow Airport, Reading, South West England and South Wales.

Initial consultation on the preliminary route was open until the end of July 2011 and was led by High Speed 2 Limited, the company set up by the Department for Transport (DfT), to deliver the project. Ealing Council has submitted its response to the scheme stating a holding objection.

Ealing Council's response to the scheme

In January 2012, Justine Greening, Secretary of State for Transport, announced plans to proceed with plans to build the high speed rail line.  The recent decision on the first phase (from London to the West Midlands) is not approval to build the line but authority to move the scheme forward to the next stage of design. The next eighteen months will see the HS2 team develop the engineering, design and environmental work with a view to submitting for powers to build via a Hybrid Bill in late 2013. This must include full public consultation as part of this next phase. The second phase (including a HS2 spur to Heathrow) will have recommendations for route and station options submitted to ministers by Spring 2012 and will be considered by the end of 2014

There are now plans underway for a series of further engagement opportunities.  These will take the form of:

• community forums - to enable communities to identify the most significant impacts in each area and contribute to efforts to mitigate them.
• planning forums - involving officers from local authorities and other transport and planning bodies to discuss route design development, planning issues, environmental impacts and mitigation principles.
• an Environment forum - involving national representatives of environmental consultees and government departments. This group will assist the development of environmental policy for the development stage of HS2.

More information including details of the preferred route through Ealing can be found on the Department for Transport website.