HS2 Update – Waddesdon to Aylesbury | 9th Aug 2025

I managed to get out despite having a nasty cold. I would rather have stayed at home! But anyway, I saw a few minor changes along this section, like the Waddesdon Greenway and Putlowes overbridge seems to be on hold for the time being.

Waddesdon to Thame Valley Viaduct plans video:

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Hello everyone. Welcome to another HS2 update where I’ll be covering the area between Wodston and Alsbury. Throughout the video, I’ll be including footage from the previous visit. Good morning everyone. Welcome to another video. Oh, feeling a bit rough this morning. I have a cold, but uh we have to persevere, don’t we? So, this is a Watson Greenway, and uh it’s changed since last time. Um I know whereas before you used to go straight on, you go left and then up on this uh bit here. And I can’t remember how it used to look now. It’s weird, isn’t it? It keeps changing. We’ll have a look on the way back as well. Uh, but here’s where HS2 will cross. Can’t really see Put’s bridge. That’s the uh the overbridgeidge for the Watson Greenway. Still no uh bridge deck. at the moment. But we’ll have a look from the air and see if anything is happening with regards to the landscaping cuz that keeps changing too as they get the drainage ready and everything. Surprised to see anyone on site really Saturday morning. Uh, never usually see that much going on on a Saturday. Fair amount of noise from that machine. Yeah. So, that’s the drainage ditch they’re sorting out there. um which comes from the culvert which is further up here. Okay, let’s get to the air and see what changes have happened. So, as I said, I’ve got a cold and now I’ve got to try and do a voice over with a croaky voice. So, please bear with me. Oh, there’s going to be many takes on this, I’m sure. But let’s carry on anyway. So, what changes have happened since last time? Um, not many along this uh Watston cutting here. That’s the A41, the new section there with Black Grove Road curving off to the north. Part of the original Blackrove Road can be seen to the right of the roundabout there as it stops abruptly at the realigned A41 Pista Road. We’re now passing over the original Black Grove Road. As you can see, the cutting goes straight through it. We’re now approaching the temporary roundabout on the A41 with the old section of that road going across the center there. Much of it’s been obliterated and will eventually be dug away when the railway line goes through it. The new curving bit of road at the bottom leads to the farms at Cranwell. Just below the roundabout, the land is looking a little bit more cleared since last time as I prepare the ground for the track bed. Just below the entrance to the compound, I can see they’ve been building up a stockpile of dark gray material for some purpose later on. If you’re enjoying this video, please don’t forget to subscribe and click on the bell for notifications of future videos. I can see some more stockpiling here alongside the the track bed. There’s quite a bit of work going on along this bit because the old field drainage ditches are being redirected through these new culverts which have yet to be connected up. So the trench that’s running diagonally across the railway line here will eventually disappear when they connect up the drainage. We’re now passing over Watson Greenway, which is a shared use path leading from Elsbyville Parkway Station to Watson manner. The route of the greenway will pass over this bridal way over bridge and we’ve yet to see the deck in place. Um it seems to be a long way off yet before they get to that stage. But they are building up the landscape around it. those huge banks on either side of it where the greenway will go along the top there and pass over the bridge and curve its way round on the southern side of it. So here we can see clearly where they’ve changed the route of the the greenway slightly when I cycled over it earlier. So now we’re going to cycle back the other way before I head off to Tame Valley Vioaduct. So back on the greenway again looking from the other direction towards Alsbury. So a lot of work going on with the landscaping around here and the drainage ditch. which joins up with a culvert further back there. Uh it’s hard to say what all this is going to look like. The work is still going on as we can see. digger there putting in gravel. That must mean the pipes in there and they’re now filling it all in. So this is fleet mast and spinny just through here. If you’d like to support this channel with a donation, please go to my buy me a coffee page at this link. Thank you. And the best bit of surface probably in the county as temporary as this is. Oh, the joggers and cyclists are out this morning now. It’s almost half 9. So, as I said earlier, and as we could see from the aerial views, the uh bridge deck is nowhere to be seen yet. It shouldn’t be too long. Right. So the next stop will be uh Put’s overbridgeidge which looks to be coming on quite well now. I reckon that’s probably almost complete. And then uh Tame Valley viuctu. And I know they’ve started on the bridge parapets, but I don’t think they’re installing them all the way along just yet. Just uh fitting them while they can, I suppose. Right, let’s uh let’s crack on. We’re now heading towards the area around Putlo’s farm. And the track bed here is very much more complete. With Plo’s farm at the top of the screen there, we come to its overbridge. And there doesn’t appear to be much work that’s been done since last time. There’s not even any signs of bridge parapets anywhere. So, it looks as being put on hold for the moment. There’s not even a crane on site. We now arrive at Tame Valley Violet and we can see that they’ve progressed a bit more with the concrete deck. I think they fitted some more bridge parapets by the looks of it. So, it’s coming on slowly, ever so slowly. So, that brings us to the close of this video. I hope it’s not been too bad with my croaky voice. It was a real struggle, believe me. Oh, it’s been awful. Anyway, um, thanks for watching. Thanks to all the new subscribers and thanks to you people who’ve been donating. It’s much appreciated. Hopefully, I’ll feel better next time. So until then, bye for now.