Our High Speed Rail Apprentice Network is made up of apprentices from across our member companies – helping to connect apprentices from across HS2 and its contractors, and the wider HSR family and provide apprentices with opportunities for networking, meeting other apprentices and sharing experiences and best practice.
Voices from the worlds of politics, business and industry have come together in this report HS2 Midlands Voices – to argue that the full ‘Y shaped’ HS2 network must be completed in full to enable long-promised ‘levelling up’ of the regional and national economy. The report makes clear that HS2’s Eastern Leg Read more…
The UK 2070 Commission has produced a report that calls on the government to Go Big, Go Local. The report highlights how only a balanced growth plan, a New Deal for Levelling Up is likely to deliver greater prosperity without having damaging environmental and social consequences. Greengauge 21 produced the UK’s 2070 Transport Infrastructure Read more…
Our latest report makes the case for putting rail at the heart of a green post-pandemic economic recovery. Building back better – the green case for rail investment after the pandemic has been developed in partnership with the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), and calls for a major investment in high Read more…
We have submitted a response to the BEIS Committee call for evidence on post-pandemic economic growth. The response focuses on the rail sector in the areas as outlined by the Committee and highlights the role a national high speed rail network, including HS2, could play in the country’s recovery and Read more…
Our latest online panel event was arranged jointly with HS2 Ltd to coincide with International Women in Engineering Day – and is part of our ongoing work to increase the representation of women in the sector. The panel was made up of senior women from our membership and female apprentices Read more…
By Ed Butcher, Head of Business Development, HS1 Ltd.
As I look on in awe at the massive endeavour HS2 embarks on, I cannot help but wonder what lessons HS1 might have learnt along the way, that could help HS2 deliver more when trains start rolling. On reflection, my key tip from what I have learnt from selling HS1 capacity, is be bolder at construction and future-proof for growth and opportunities.
HS1 and our partners has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. From those now employed in new highly-skilled and highly-paid jobs created by French companies based in London to the thousands of families that can afford a home with a garden because of improved journey times and employment opportunities unlocked by our high-speed connection.
The route has become the transport backbone of the South East delivering £427m of economic benefit last year. However, just ten years after opening we are already reaching capacity constraints on domestic high-speed services that might have been addressed by bolder thinking at the outset – most notably on the needs for domestic rolling stock. With roughly 11% passenger growth a year, HS1 services have been wildly successful and helped change the economic growth trajectory of Kent. Working with government and Southeastern, we are thankfully devising solutions that will ensure these rolling stock constraints are overcome.
Scope creep is the blight of all major infrastructure schemes, threatening viability, and fundability. Therefore, I respect the discipline of keeping a tight lid on costs and a single-minded vision to make a project the scale of HS2 happen. But as we have learnt, single-mindedness can come at the cost of future development and opportunities.
In the case of HS1, residents of Folkestone and Dover now live (more…)
The Costain Skanska joint venture (CSjv) team, working in partnership with HS2, has shared details of its legacy programme that has created vast numbers of local jobs, invested in SMEs and challenged the stereotypical diversity of a construction project. These outcomes known under the term ‘Social Value’ support the long-term wellbeing and resilience of individuals, communities, and society in general.
Costain Skanska’s social value activities have included partnering with Buses for Homeless (B4H), a social enterprise which aims to get homeless people off the street and into full time sustainable employment and accommodation. B4H refurbishes decommissioned London buses into spaces suitable for their guests to live and takes them through an intensive 12-week training programme. The site set up includes separate buses for sleeping; cooking and eating; learning; and wellness and therapy.
Speaking of the initiative, Dan Atkins, Founder of Buses 4 Homeless said: (more…)
Sustainability and resilience have never been more important in transport infrastructure than now. The ambition for a megaproject such as HS2 has always been to build the most sustainable railway of its type in the world. Representing companies with relevant experience and an interest in high speed rail, the High Speed Rail Group is acutely aware of the challenges to industry that the government’s net zero carbon target brings. As part of its commitment to managing carbon footprint, HS2 has also set ambitious targets for its supply chain to minimise the whole life carbon emissions of its assets including buildings. For stations this includes achieving net zero carbon in operation for regulated emissions and achieving a 50 per cent reduction in whole life carbon emissions against a baseline for a typical station.
Arup has produced a design for HS2’s new Interchange station, to be built near Solihull and the NEC in the West Midlands. The station will be one of the best-connected places in the UK, with customers (more…)
Responding to the National Infrastructure Commission’s (NIC) Rail Needs Assessment, which will inform the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan, we have called on the Government to implement a transformative rolling high speed rail programme across Britain. Investment in high speed rail infrastructure, through HS2 and beyond, will be essential to supporting resilience Read more…