Simon Heffer writes in The Telegraph of London:

Let me begin by declaring a lack of interest. I live about 70 miles from the Chilterns, and therefore from what would be the closest environmentally sensitive point of the proposed £17 billion high-speed rail link from London to Birmingham. It would not be in my back yard.
Yet I can understand the anger of tens, even possibly hundreds, of thousands of inhabitants of that charming part of England as they contemplate this almost-straight line being driven through theirs. It is not so much the scar this would leave across miles of beautiful landscape; it is not just the pervasive noise of it (although the Government is going to enormous lengths to “prove” that it will be largely inaudible: if you’ll believe that, you’ll believe anything). It is the wicked waste of money and the fundamental pointlessness of the entire operation.
Formal consultation on the plan began on Monday. The public has a right to be wary of such stunts, for they are usually simply the Government ticking boxes before proceeding with what it has determined to do, anyway. I fear this is likely to be the case with the proposed line. It is the only thing resembling a great public project that this neo-socialist Coalition, which manifestly seeks a neo-socialist dimension in order to validate itself, has to offer. There are, however, two even more pressing reasons why it is going down this hideously expensive alley.

The rest here.