News

• Major boost for UK train-building as HS2’s state-of-the-art fleet of 225mph (360km/h) high speed trains will be built by Alstom and Hitachi Rail at their factories in County Durham, Derby and Crewe

• Landmark contract set to support 2,500 jobs across the UK and boost the economy by over £157m each year

• New images of what the trains could look like, including broadcast quality video, available here: https://visual.library.hs2.org.uk/p/share/xX9lUd9E8rZ7
• View and embed an animation of the trains here: https://youtu.be/9eQC3mOlGQQ

• HS2 CEO Mark Thurston visits Bolton factory as work starts on £36.5m contract
• Bolton SME continues to recruit new staff to build over 300 safety doors for HS2 tunnels

Birmingham Ladywood MP, Shabana Mahmood, has visited HS2’s Curzon Street Station site to see for herself how Eastside is being transformed in readiness for the arrival of HS2 and the city’s brand-new intercity terminus station.

HS2’s business engagement team is encouraging Birmingham business owners to get ready for £25bn worth of HS2 contract opportunities that are expected to flow out into the supply chain over the coming years.

• HS2 contractors LMJV and Wessex Archaeology create a new archaeology club in Solihull

• The Solihull Young Archaeologists Club (YAC) will allow young people to study artefacts and learn about local history, including along the HS2 line

• Today [2 December] HS2 launched its first tunnel boring machine (TBM) in the Midlands

• The 2,000 tonne TBM has started on its journey to dig a one-mile tunnel under Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire, preserving the precious habitats above

• The TBM is named ‘Dorothy’ after Dorothy Hodgkin, who in 1964 became the first British woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.