Civic Voice
Proposed Site Visit to High Speed 1
Date: 6 May 2011
Guide: Bernard Gambrill. Vice President Kent Federation of Amenity Societies.
Time Cumulative Duration
Time
of Activity
10h00
10h12
10h50
38
minutes
Activity/Vantage Point
Vantage Point Attributes
Party arrive at St Pancras International
Party depart St Pancras, via Southeastern Railway
Party arrive at Ashford. Short walk to International Station
Concourse.
Guide will travel on the same train.
On-train briefing to be provided if party sitting together.
11h10
Briefing by Civic Voice and/or KFAS
11h15
11h30
15
minutes
15
minutes
Tea, Coffee can be purchased from Concourse Caf�. Toilets
available.
Briefing by Guide with maps and diagrams
Join coach at entrance to Ashford International Station.
The Ashford Borough Council was supportive of the notion of the
line so long as it satisfied their aspirations for the town, not
unreasonably. However, until the last moment, they left their
desire to have to new line (the international station already existed)
come through the town rather than the alignment that had been
proposed (after full consultation with technical officers of the
council) that passed north of the town beside the M20 motorway.
In terms of the services there would have been little difference
except that the approaches on the eastern side of the town would
have been along the existing line as far as the Eurotunnel terminal.
After the route proposals had completed their consultation phase
and as the Bill documentation was being prepared for deposit the
Ashford Borough council, assisted by a professional lobbyist,
pursued a direct intervention with the Secretary of State for
Transport for a reconsideration of the alignment. Instructed by the
SofS the project group produced three alternatives that ran through
the town centre using a non-existent �gap� on the western side
of the town.
The alternatives were presented to a full council meeting with the
action groups present. The relative costs and the environmental
impacts compared with the original route were presented and a
formal response received that supported a central route that would
impose additional costs and, what were at the time thought to be
route-stopping environmental limitations on the scheme.
The assumed route stoppers were the demolition and relocation of
the regionally-important cattle market, the permanent loss of two
Grade 2 listed cottages and 8 unlisted terraced cottages. Part of the
additional cost was the raising of the Beaver Road bridge by 0.5m
(then under construction by Kent County council) to accommodate
the overhead line traction equipment.
In addition to the other drawbacks, the chosen route option would
impose a permanent speed restriction on the line (270km/h) over
7km of HS1.
The Legacy
This was all done whilst the use of third rail traction equipment on
the Eurostar train sets was considered essential for the approaches
to Waterloo International. Subsequently, when Waterloo was
dropped as an international terminal, due to the lack of patronage,
and the total service moved into St Pancras International the third
rail equipment was removed from the Eurostar sets.
The expected increases in the patronage from Ashford have not
come from the presence of the line in the centre of the town. The
Eurostar service from the station has been commensurately
reduced. This may result from the opening of the international and
domestic station at Ebbsfleet and its convenience to potential
passengers from Hertfordshire, East Anglia, East and West Sussex,
and Surrey.
ROUTE TOUR
(20)
Drive along Bad M�nstereifel Way to M20 Junction 10,
along the M20 eastwards toward Junction 11 then take
local road towards Newington and take right turn into culde-sac at the Saxon Shore Way. This crosses HS1 east of
Ashford and follows the route through Mersham and
Sellindge.
25
First Vantage Point KP106
The vantage point gives an elevated view of the Eurotunnel terminal
minutes*
area and the Dollands Moor Freight yard together with the split
The route reaches a summit before descending and
arrangement for the high speed line allowing unimpeded access to
skirting past the freight yard to enter the Eurotunnel
and from the Channel Tunnel for international trains.
portal.
The environmental treatment is important here as the HS1 down
line passes through an area that had been the subject of a
Eurotunnel commitment to local people and planted to limit the
visibility of the freight yard from the North Downs viewing points
overlooking the Eurotunnel terminal.
Walkers on the Saxon Shore Way, a long distance footpath around
the Kentish coast cross HS1 at this point.
Looking west the HS1 formation is in cutting adjacent to Sandling
station and Sandling Park. It was here that the largest
archaeological dig (over 1kilometre long) took place to show a
settlement that lasted from the early Bronze age until the late
Anglo-Saxon period (7th Century). Extensive burials and artefacts
were discovered in a site adjacent to a motorway cutting which
reported no archaeological interest in the area!
(20)
Drive westwards to M20 Junction 10 by following the local This will give people on the other side of the coach views of HS1.
road, A 261 to travel beneath HS1 at Sellindge. Follow the
motorway from Junction 10 to Junction 8 at Hollingbourne
Service Station. Take the local road eastward to
Harrietsham.
25
Second Vantage Point KP72 Fairbourne Road Overbridge The difficulty at this point is the horizontal proximity of A20 and
minutes*
M20 roads leaving little room for HS1. The roads are at different
heights with a series of houses and a garage once perched above
the motorway. The design called for the Harrietsham Open-Sided
Tunnel with narrow railway clearances and �windows� to allow
the aerodynamic pressures to dissipate sideways.
The village settlement along a curvaceous alignment of the old
Dover Road had already been by-passed by (bisected) the A20
alignment. HS1 designers faced considerable opposition from the
owners of properties in East Street. Holm Mill and Polhill beside the
river Len headwater marshes on the far side of the motorway.
Looking eastwards through the Sandway Gap where HS1 leaves
motorway alignment in order to maintain the 300km/h maximum
speed of Eurostar services.
(10)
Return along local road to Eyhorne Street
20
Third Vantage Point KP69 Hollingbourne, Eyhorne Street
minutes*
Eyhorne Street, a Conservation Area, was a consultation hotbed due
to then recent and successive development proposals for the area,
for the extension to the M20 motorway, Maidstone Football Club
stadium and then HS1. They have subsequently seen off an inland
depot for Channel Tunnel freight traffic! The proposals for the
crossing of HS1 on the approach to the settlement begun as an
overbridge but became a 360m-long tunnel crossing due to
determined opposition. The tunnel was constructed to the east into
Cotuam�s Meadow, owned by the Leeds Castle estate. The street
curls around the meadow and overlooks the new line about 300m
away.
The railway at this point had to fell the only surviving elm tree in
this part of Kent.
45
Lunch at Hollingbourne. (Toilets available)
minutes*
(15)
Re-join coach to travel beside motorway to Junction 6 and
take A229 up Blue Bell Hill towards the Pilgrim�s Way
Crossing on HS1
25
View of the North Downs Tunnel to the west where it emerges from
Fourth Vantage Point KP58 Pilgrim�s Way Overbridge
minutes*
beneath Blue Bell Hill (North Downs) at the crossing point of one of
the established routes of the Pilgrims� Way (Winchester or
Southwark to Canterbury) as it crosses the Medway valley. The area
of the cutting produced the fourteenth oldest house site in Britain
that was fully recorded as well as a supporting settlement dating
from the New Stone Age (4,000-2,300BC). This area is associated
with the Kent megaliths, Kit�s Coty House &c. The White Horse
Stone lies in the wood to east and is associated with the worship of
Odin and the Norse mercenaries, Hengist and Horsa.
The extensive planting scheme seeks to hide the portal without
declaring the alignment of the railway.
To the east, the formation of the HS1 tracks starts its open line
journey unaccompanied by other transport corridors as far as
Detling (KP63). The line was built below ground level through here
and Detling due to the proximity of housing, Boxley Abbey (closed
1537) and the long views southwards from The North Downs Way,
and the settlements of Boarley and Boxley thus mitigating the effect
in a scenically-sensitive area (AONB).
Local people had persistently petitioned for a long tunnel option
that would have surfaced to the east at Detling. The House of Lords
Select Committee insisted that the deposited alignment be adopted
and that it was not to have rails above ground level at any point.
(20)
Re-join coach for journey up Blue Bell Hill, A 229 and
through Junction 3 on M2 motorway. Leave motorway at
Junction 2 and take local road to vantage point on A228.
25
Fifth Vantage Point KP50 Medway Valley
Looking across the river Medway the village of Borstal sits next to
minutes*
the two viaducts (1964/5 and 2002/3) of the M2 motorway and the
more elegant bridge carrying HS1 across the valley. The final
approach spans of the HS1 bridge on the eastern bank had to be
constructed with some piers piled into an asbestos tip. Bearing in
mind the proximity of the village school this had to be done with
great ingenuity and care. Beyond Borstal is the Nashenden valley
that is shared by the motorway and the approach to the North
Downs tunnel.
The airborne noise of the transport corridor heard from the vantage
point is not indicative of that experienced by local housing as that is
either relative distant from the sources or are below the level of the
source. It is, in any event, influenced by the persistent motorway
noise.
The M2 motorway was widened during the construction period of
HS1 using powers granted in the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996.
To the west of the vantage point the HS1 is seen ascending into
Cobham registered Park with its 2 land bridges built across HS1 and
alongside the widened M2. Further into the Park HS1 passes close
to ponds designed as part of the parkland setting by
�Capability� Brown, the eighteenth-century landscape designer.
The independent Rail Link Countryside Scheme was devised to
provide an organisation to raise additional monies for off-line
environmental schemes as a result of the work done, in this
instance, with Lord Darnley to control access to the park and to
restore and enhance its features, woodland rides around Cobham
Hall, now a girls� school. and a un-used family mausoleum
(15)
25
minutes*
Re-join the M2 motorway heading west leaving widened
A20 at Henhurst Road
Sixth Vantage Point KP43 Henhurst Road Overbridge
This vantage point is in north Kent with a landscape of pylons,
overhead electricity routes, cement factory chimneys and housing
estates of Singlewell to the north. The A2 trunk road and HS1 form
a development boundary for Gravesend to the north.
To the west the railway is complicated by passing loops, required
for the operation of freight trains over HS1. Here a new
infrastructure maintenance depot has been constructed in the
margin left between the widened A2 road and the railway. To the
south is open farmland with the �best and most versatile� land
quality. Large market gardens are located here together with
packing stations for supermarket fruit and vegetables.
The existence of the new Ebbsfleet station has provided
considerable stimulus to the local economy and reversed a
downward house price trend for the Thames townships.
To the east is the HS1 Mid Point Feeder and Transformer station for
HS1, one of three feeders (located at KP21, 44 and 100). This feeder
has two transformers to provide security of supply and the power
source required by a railway operating on a 25, 0, -25kV system.
This provides a 50kV total system and sufficient power (17MW per
train) for the operation of high speed trains running at 230 and
300km/h.
The location of the mid-point feeder was limited by the paucity of
high tension routes in the county. Another location existed at KP58
Pilgrims� Way Bridge in an Area of Outstanding Beauty. The two
local authorities discussed the problem of location and decided on
the Henhurst road site.
(15)
18h03
15
Re-join A20 Trunk Road travelling westwards and take
local roads from Pepper Hill interchange to Ebbsfleet
station
Depart from Ebbsfleet
Ebbsfleet station was developed in the Ebbsfleet valley (one of two
minutes
in Kent) on the boundary between the boroughs of Dartford (W)
and Gravesham (E) on land owned by the Blue Circle organisation.
The area comprised worked out chalk pits, active land fill sites and a
methane producing site along with the Blue Circle Cement company
sports ground . At the south end of the valley is Springhead, an
ancient monument around the sacred Celtic and latterly Roman
Settlement (Vagniacis) on Watling Street whilst at the Northern end
is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) relating to the geological
formation in the chalk face of the pit. Swanscombe Man (in fact, a
woman) was found to the west of the valley at it northern end.
Excavations associated with the building of HS1 revealed that the
site of Vagniacis was more extensive than the boundaries of the
Ancient Monument would suggest, an Anglo-Saxon tidal mill with a
horizontal mill wheel, and the remains of a straight tusked elephant
apparently hunted by local people.
The planning of the station in this location resulted from discussions
with boroughs on the north and south of the Thames adjacent to
the M25 which cross the river in Dartford. The station is provided
with provision for 9,000 car parking spaces and the site secured
through an agreement between the Blue Circle property arm and
the Department for Transport. The site was not gifted to the
private development partner (London and Continental Railways) as
part of the HS1 Development Agreement as were other
development lands at St Pancras/King�s Cross, Stratford and
Ashford..
18h21
18
minutes
Arrive at St Pancras International
Completion of Visit
*Including loading and unloading times
Notes
1. All of the vantage points are on public rights of way
2. It is better to have shoes, not walking boots as the paths used have reasonable surfaces or are fully metalled.
3. Timings are notional..
Bernard Gambrill