High-speed route moved after Tory objections

The planned route of a new high-speed rail line has been altered to address serious concerns about its impact on local communities and the countryside, the Transport Secretary has said.

Philip Hammond is to unveil the preferred path for the costly and controversial HS2 line from London to Birmingham today and is hoping to calm opposition to it among several Conservative MPs.

Residents' groups and local councils are vehemently against the line, which will pass through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and other Tory heartlands.

But Mr Hammond said they had been the victims of "misinformation" and would discover that the consequences were "far less than they have been led to believe".

He said yesterday: "When people understand precisely what is being proposed, I think many of them will realise that the impact will be far less than they have been led to believe."

The go-ahead for the line was announced earlier this year by the then transport secretary Lord Adonis following an exhaustive feasibility study.

Labour also announced plans for a Y-shaped network of high-speed lines that could later extend the fast trains north of Birmingham to northern England and Scotland.