All the latest news and views.
Fifteen years on from its launch by Government, but still some way from completion, HS2 remains in the public eye. As this new book by first time author Sally Gimson shows, there is enough intrigue and political shenanigans to make Off the Rails – the Inside Story of HS2 a Read more…
HS2 has completed a landmark river re-naturalisation project in Warwickshire, delivering the most significant natural river realignment on the programme to date. At 749 metres in length, the realignment of the River Cole near Coleshill represents a major environmental achievement alongside the delivery of new rail infrastructure. The project has Read more…
A specialist HS2 engineering team is preparing to move a 112m long, 1,631 tonne steel structure over a section of Lawley Middleway – part of Birmingham’s ring road in August. Rather than building the bridge in situ, disruption to road users has been drastically reduced by constructing the steel span Read more…
HS2 has reached another significant construction milestone with the installation of the first high-speed rail platform at Old Oak Common station in West London. This marks the first platform completed anywhere on Britain’s new high-speed railway and provides a visible glimpse of what future passengers can expect. The new platforms Read more…
We welcome the news that the HS2 project has received a four-year funding settlement from the Government in this Spending Review, marking an important step forward in rebuilding confidence and certainty around Britain’s biggest infrastructure project. This sort of funding agreement creates the platform from which HS2 and its suppliers Read more…
The construction of two parallel viaducts that will carry HS2 trains over the M6 near Birmingham Airport has taken a major step forward, with the first section of structural steelwork now complete. To reduce disruption for motorists, the twin 320-metre-long M6 South viaducts are being assembled to one side and Read more…
HS2’s giant tunnelling machine Mary Ann broke through in May – marking the end of her mission to excavate the first bore of what will soon become the longest railway tunnel in the West Midlands. The 125-metre-long machine began constructing the 3.5-mile (5.8km) Bromford Tunnel, which starts at the Warwickshire Read more…
HS2 contractors have completed work on a pair of innovative extensions to the southern portal of its longest tunnel to eliminate the possibility of ‘sonic boom’ being created by high-speed trains entering at 200mph. The structures, built at the southern end of the railway’s 10-mile Chiltern Tunnel to the north-west Read more…
HS2’s second tunnel boring machine (TBM), named Caroline, has completed a 5-mile tunnel drive under London. This is the second machine to reach the Green Park Way vent shaft in Ealing, and one of four giant tunnelling machines being deployed to build the railway’s Northolt Tunnel. The 2,050-tonne TBM broke Read more…
The HS2 lifted Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) ‘Sushila’ is out of the ground at the Green Park Way site in Greenford, West London following its 5-mile drive underneath the capital. The cutterhead, front and middle shield, weighing 850 tonnes, were lifted from the vent shaft in one piece using a Read more…