I just don't get it, this line has been discussed before on this forum and the point was made that there is already a functioning rail link between London and Birmingham - this is about an obsession with speed. Why! Especially at the cost of our fast diminishing countryside. How can the argument for more new houses be balanced against destroying people's existing homes and environment just for Speed. I experience no schadenfreude at all with the knowledge that the homes affected will probably be very expensive ones.