First, imagine digging a tunnel. Now imagine the ground is actively trying to stop you. HS2’s route goes through the Chiltern Hills. That area is full of flint and chalk. Flint is basically rock-hard glass. It destroys drill bits for fun.
They’ve found Roman ruins. They’ve found Iron Age settlements. And one time, they dug up a perfectly preserved 5,000-year-old tree trunk. It was a nice tree. But it wasn’t a train track. Every discovery stops the dig for weeks.
Bats, Newts, and the Law
Here’s a funny fact: HS2 has its own bat expert. Yes, a dedicated person whose job is to move sleeping bats out of tunnels. They build special “bat bridges” over the tracks. The bats don’t care. They fly straight into the diggers anyway.
Then there are the great crested newts. These tiny, spotty amphibians have more legal protection than some historic buildings. You can’t move a single newt without a government permit. It takes six months to get one.
So, for every newt, there’s a delay. A very slow, slimy delay.
