How does High Speed Rail differ from the conventional railway? High-speed railways share most, if not all, characteristics of conventional mainline railways, metros and even trams: They run on rails and are usually powered by electricity, they require structures and control systems, they are subject to variability in their environment Read more…
Rail has long been at the heart of UK transport infrastructure and by the time the first HS2 service comes into operation it will have been over 200 years since the first public railway opened in Britain. High Speed Rail however offers the opportunity to completely rethink station design in Read more…
Euston is the London terminus for HS2 services and in order to facilitate the HS2 project construction related activities by January 2019, the HS2 station site requires operational space currently occupied by Network Rail platforms and lineside infrastructure. Achieving this target date requires the decommissioning, removal and relocation of existing Read more…
Railway Industry Association (RIA) members Fugro are an international site characterisation specialist – one of nine contractors selected for the Phase One ground investigation framework. Site investigations (SI) for HS2 phase one are being undertaken to demanding standards. They are providing vital ground engineering and design data for the construction Read more…
The Royal Assent granted to Phase 1 of HS2 has given formal approval for work to start on the UK’s first domestic, dedicated high speed rail line. However, long before the main construction starts, months – and in some cases, years – of detailed planning and preparation takes place to Read more…
Jacobs graduate geotechnical engineer, Laura King, shares her insight of working on the multi-billion dollar California High-Speed Rail project, and what she’s looking forward to bringing to her next role on High Speed 2. The $64 billion California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) project* will provide a 220 mph train service over Read more…
The philosophy and project-based culture at Idom ensures that its UK team collaborates in international IDOM Group rail projects. For example, the team seeks to bring international expertise to the UK – being actively involved in railway innovation and research, which will provide new rail technology and designs that will Read more…
The enabling works of a project are often the most critical, but are also often overlooked. Not only do they prepare sites for major infrastructure development, importantly, they set the tone to the local community of the future work to come. However, they often occur with new teams coming together, Read more…
In April 2016, Atkins, as part of a joint venture with CH2M and SENER, was appointed as the Engineering Delivery Partner (EDP) for Phase One of HS2. The EDP is currently working with HS2 and the recently appointed main works civils contractors during their mobilisation and integration. The EDP is Read more…
Bechtel is transferring its experience from the Crossrail project, where it pioneered the use of 4D planning, to the high speed rail environment. On Crossrail the 4D approach (outlined below) was initiated during the detailed design phase. On HS2 our 4D tools and processes will be applied during the earlier Read more…