Channel link arouses anger and dismay: Rail managers embark on damage limitation after leak of the government's 'short tunnel' option for Kent

THE leak of the route through Kent for the Channel tunnel rail link has caused widespread protests over the environmental impact, with at least one Tory MP warning that he would not vote for the subsequent Parliamentary Bill unless the route were changed.

The Government has chosen the 'short tunnel' option of the three put forward by Union Railways, the British Rail subsidiary that is developing the line, which will be built by the private sector and partly funded by the Government. It is the middle one in terms of impact on the environment and price. Ministers were clearly too fearful of protests to go ahead with the cheapest 'no tunnel' option, but their choice means no tunnels west of the Medway towns or north of Ashford, saving around pounds 250m of the eventual cost which ministers hope to keep below pounds 3bn.

Sir Keith Speed, MP for Ashford, said: 'I've spent the last 18 months trying to convince local residents that the Ove Arup route, accepted by the then secretary of state (for Transport), Malcolm Rifkind, in October 1991. Now it has all been changed. The route will now go through a golf course, a new sewage work and a technology park.'

He said that there would be about 500 meetings in Kent over the next six months at which residents would be consulted. He warned that unless the Government changed its mind, he would vote against the Bill which will be necessary for the link to be built.

Union Railways was yesterday refusing to comment on the leak, but rail managers quickly embarked on a damage-limitation exercise. They point out that the impact will be much less than previous versions of the route, with only 11 houses needing to be demolished and 70 properties affected by losing part of their land. They stressed that the environmental standards will be the same as those for other big infrastructure projects, such as motorways.

Tory MPs like Sir Keith and his neighbour in Mid-Kent, Andrew Rowe, had warned the Government to publish the route as early as possible to avoid the sort of public relations fiasco caused by the leak.

Conservative councillors in Kent, where county elections are due in May, were angry about the leak and some aspects of the environmental effects but refused to comment in detail until the route of the 68-mile line from Folkestone to London is published officially on Monday.

Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, the chairman of Kent County Council's environment, planning and transport committee, said yesterday: 'You can't build a railway through Kent without causing some environmental harm.' He went on: 'Our job is to minimise the harm and get some benefit out of the route for the county as a whole.'

There was dismay, too, over the fact that the line appears to be unable to carry heavy freight. Tim Bain-Smith of Rail Europe said: 'It is clear that this line has not been designed to carry containerised freight. The gradients are too high and the trains would need extra locomotives, which would make it uneconomical.'

The Government is intending to publish on Wednesday details of its plans for the East Thames Corridor, which will involve encouraging local authorities to work together to attract new infrastructure to the area. Blue Circle, the cement company, is also launching its plan for Euro City Dartford, which envisages building 12,600 homes and creating space for 34,500 jobs on land it owns near the rail link, the M25 and the A2/M2.

(Photograph and map omitted)