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Guide to the formation of the HS2 line
This web site shows the route of the proposed HS2 by superimposing a multi-coloured line on an underlying map.
It's multi-coloured because this web site has chosen to use the following colours to indicate the formation of each section of the route:
- red: cutting;
- black: tunnel;
- green: green tunnel (see below);
- blue: viaduct;
- magenta: at grade (meaning level with the nearby land);
- yellow: embankment.
Sometimes the formation used by one side of the route of the HS2 is different from that of the other side. For example, if the route lies on the side of a hill, one side might be in a cutting whereas the other side might be on an embankment. When mapping HS2 Phase 2, the Department for Transport chose just to indicate the formation of the Downside track, i.e., the track that goes to London. So, on this web site, for HS2 Phase 2, the colour of the line always shows the formation of the Downside track. However, when mapping HS2 Phase 1, the Department for Transport chose to indicate in the data the sections of the line when this happens and this web site has chosen to display those sections in violet.
The Department for Transport has chosen to use the term green tunnel for what I think is more commonly called a cut and cover tunnel. A web page provided by the BBC says a green tunnel is essentially a deep cutting with a tube put into it, over which grass, trees and soil are placed. It is not as deep as a normal tunnel, and it is much cheaper to construct. There is more about these tunnels on this Wikipedia page.