High Speed 2 Update

The Government has made a statement in the Commons on it's preferred route for HS2

The Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has told the Commons that changes to the proposed route of the HS2 high speed rail line will mitigate the impact of the trains.

The 250mph trains will run between London and Birmingham - Mr Hammond says the new line with tackle the north-south divide by cutting travelling times from the capital to the Midlands.

He also admitted that some people along the preferred route will see their property values fall and confirmed that official were working on a compensation scheme.

One of the changes will happen between Amersham and Wendover in Bucks - there Mr Hammond said there were opportunities for a ``green bridge'' over the cutting and a longer ``green tunnel''.

Here's the latest map from the Government

Here are all the close up maps