A milestone has been reached in London with the HS2 team completing half of the 8.4 mile twin-bored Northolt Tunnel.
Four machines are being used to complete the tunnel between Old Oak Common and West Ruislip.
The first machine was launched eastwards from West Ruislip in October 2022, followed by a second a month later.
Both machines will complete 5 miles of the route, finishing up at the Green Park Way vent shaft in Greenford, where they will be lifted out.
In February 2024, a third machine was launched from HS2’s Victoria Road Crossover Box near Old Oak Common towards Greenford, a fourth machine joined in May.
Combined, the machines have now travelled over 8.4 miles and have excavated nearly 2 million tonnes of earth in the process.
This earth will be reused, firstly at the Copthall Green Tunnel to remodel a golf course that has been impacted by the work and also to create a new green space in Hillingdon.
“Our London tunnels team are making significant progress taking HS2 from design to reality underneath the capital, building Britain’s new transformational low carbon railway. Completing half of the Northolt Tunnel has come after years of work from the team and we are now looking forwards to the TBMs reaching the end of their journeys, with the first arriving at Green Park Way in Greenford later this year. “
Malcolm Codling, Client Director for HS2 Ltd
Responses
To my mind, the single biggest mistake was over-engineering the whole project to achieve a running speed of 360km/h (225mph) or more. Had it been constructed to the tried-and-tested 300km/h (186mph) then tried-and-tested stock could have been used and the infrastructure scaled according, reducing the overall cost massively. Given the relatively short distances between stops, the amount of time saved by running at the extra speed is minuscule, and certainly does not justify the extra energy burden. If any aspect of this project was “vanity”, it was the speed. It would have then been easier to justify (and fund) the link to HS1, to Manchester and to Leeds if the whole thing was an extension of HS1 and built to similar standard.
Lastly, the public response has often been “but who wants to shave 20 minutes off a trip to/from Birmingham?” The answer is “everyone”, especially those whose journeys start/end further north and for whom the Birmingham area is simply a passing point. If this had been hammered home – that HS2 is part of the wider rail network and not an isolated line – support across the public and political spectra would have been easier to maintain.
Shambles.
A complete farce- now they’re saying the HS2 trains ongoing to Manchester from Birmingham on the old Victorian lines won’t be able to carry the number of passengers they do now. Half baked halfwits in Westminster who do not care what happens outside of the M25
Pity it’s not connecting with HS1, it might make a bit more sense if it did.