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An alternative perspective:
High Speed 2 is needed to deliver capacity. The East Coast and paticularly West Coast lines are full. Just watch how often the zip by when you're on that bit of the M1 near Watford Gap where M1 and West Coast line run together. Upgrading the existing line would cost asmuch as HS2 and be catasrophically disruptive to the day to day service. If you need a new line it makes no sense not to build it for speed.
Cycle commuting in London is huge. I used the eponymous folding bike daily in London from 1999 until redundancy in 2013. During that time growth that started in the eighties really took off - now something like three times what it was in 2000.
I'm not generally a fan of segregated cycle routes. Not because I'm opposed in principle but because far too many are badly, and at times dangerously, implemented. The original implentation along Tavistock way with a narrow 2-way track on the north side constantly in conflict with motor vehicles using the side streets. Better now with a lane on each side.
I've yet to see or try the new route on Victoria Embankment but something was needed. Even as a confident and assertive cyclist I found it too dangerous to use daily. Using it monthly a near miss once or twice a year was acceptable. Using it daily * 2 one or two a week were not.
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