The High Speed Rail Group is pleased to welcome Balfour Beatty as it’s newest member, further strengthening the organisation’s expertise in infrastructure delivery and engineering. A leading international infrastructure provider, Balfour Beatty brings extensive experience from complex, large-scale projects across the rail and construction sectors. Its membership enhances HSRG’s ability Read more…
HS2 has reached a major milestone with the start of excavation for the final tunnel bore on the 140-mile railway between central London and the West Midlands. This marks a significant step forward in delivering better connected new rail infrastructure for the UK. The last of 11 tunnel boring machines Read more…
A major engineering milestone has been completed on the HS2 programme with the successful launch of a 130-metre steel viaduct across the Grand Union Canal near Ufton in Warwickshire. The 1.5-mile stretch of canal has now reopened to the public seven days ahead of schedule after engineers successfully slid the Read more…
Construction progress at Birmingham Curzon Street railway station has reached an important milestone, with engineers completing the final concrete pile that will support the station’s foundations. In total, 2,011 piles – each between six and 24 metres deep – have been installed to form the foundations for the new seven-platform Read more…
The High Speed Rail Group warmly welcomes the Government’s announcement of its long-term intention to build a new railway line from Birmingham to Manchester, connecting to HS2 which will run from London to Birmingham. This new line is essential if we are to avoid locking in Britain’s biggest bottleneck to Read more…
One of the lasting misconceptions about HS2 is why it was proposed in the first place. Many still believe it was all about cutting journey times, a bonus, yes, but never the primary goal. Others rightly highlight the aim to better connect the North and South of the UK – 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…
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…
Our 2025 Annual Conference, held in Birmingham, brought together senior leaders from across industry, government, and the wider transport sector to explore the future of high-speed rail, not just as a national infrastructure ambition, but as a practical route to UK growth and productivity. With the Spending Review on the 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…