All the latest news and views.
Our members – engineering and professional services consultancy WSP, working with SME Expedition Engineering, have continued to undertake a series of value engineering reviews for Old Oak Common, following the station designs which were revealed earlier this year. Taking advantage of the results from wind tunnel tests and a snow load Read more…
2019 was a critical one for HS2. There has been increased scrutiny of the project, culminating in the Government’s announcement of the Oakervee Review at the end of August, which dominated our end of year activity. Here we set out a year view of the variety of activities we have Read more…
Reports such as the one released by the Wildlife Trust not only misrepresent the substantial environmental case for HS2, but figures contained within it make misleading claims as to what is actually happening on the ground. For example, the report asserts that 693 Classified Local Wildlife Sites are affected. In Read more…
HS2 Phase 2a’s inclusion in the Queen’s Speech is good news, and shows that we can make progress on getting HS2’s benefits to the North and smashing the north-south divide. We must now press on, get HS2 built and bring the connectivity, capacity and jobs that benefit the country. Our Read more…
Our members recognise the significant opportunities for industry that the development of high speed rail in Britain can provide. The HS2 project comes at a time when investment in the country is vital in the wake of the Brexit vote. High speed rail has the capability to bring efficiency gains Read more…
HSRIL members WSP are setting new standards for Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) as well as skills, employment and education (SEE) across 11 active contracts comprising well over 1,000 people. WSP has worked collaboratively with the workforce and the supply chain to support HS2’s ambitious agenda, which has included the Read more…
South Eastern and Hitachi are celebrating a decade of High Speed 1 trains. The service has revolutionised travel for passengers in Kent and helped boost the county’s economy. Launched in 2009 – in the ten years it has operated it has carried 100 million passengers to and from London, with Read more…
We welcome the new research from Midlands Connect, which shows that 73 stations on the existing rail network stand to benefit from improved passenger services as a direct result of the capacity released by HS2. Amongst the biggest winners from HS2 are the smaller towns and cities identified by today’s Read more…
London has an escalating homelessness problem, with around 3,500 rough sleepers in the capital between October and December 2018; an increase of 18% year on year. Nearly 650 homeless people have died in London over the last five years and with the life expectancy of rough sleepers around 44 years Read more…
It is our view that the GLA Conservative’s report ‘High Speed Fail: An Alternative Plan to HS2’ contains a series of flawed arguments. It perpetuates the false choice of pitting HS2 against other major projects such as Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) and Crossrail 2. The choice that has been presented Read more…