Visiting Parliamentarians and ICE staff enjoyed a tour of the Curzon Street Station site.
Photo credit: HS2 Download image here
Members of Parliament visited HS2’s Curzon Street Station site in Birmingham on Friday, 20 January for a tour of the premises and to hear from people working on the project.
The visit was organised by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) as part of its work with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Infrastructure (APPGI), which aims to highlight the importance of economic infrastructure in the UK among Parliamentarians, Government and industry.
One of the MPs, Ruth Cadbury, attended the visit in her role as Chair of the Women in Transport APPG, the Parliamentary group set up to tackle the under-representation of women in transport and promote best practice in gender diversifying the industry’s workforce.
On a tour of the site, the group heard an HS2 project update and received an overview of the plans for the Curzon Street Station. They also heard from site contractor Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV), about how the HS2 project has provided new upskilling, employment, and education opportunities for people in the Midlands.
When complete, the Curzon Street Station will be at the heart of Britain’s new high-speed rail network and will be the northern most stop on Phase One of HS2.The design has achieved the BREEAM Excellent rating, which is an industry recognised standard for buildings that reduce energy usage and materials waste and minimise impact on the natural environment.
Andrew Jones MP, Chair of the APPGI, said:
“Delivering infrastructure is critical to making progress on the economic, social, and environmental goals of our country. Seeing projects being delivered on site visits like this, with the Institution of Civil Engineers and other key stakeholders, bring our messages to life. We’re grateful to HS2 for showing us their progress, and how different people contribute to a large-scale infrastructure project like this. It’s great to see work in action.”
Ruth Cadbury MP, Chair of the Women in Transport APPG, said:
“Women only make up a fraction of the transport and construction workforce, from railway building to bus driving. But today’s trip to Curzon Street was a reminder of the invaluable role women play in delivering major infrastructure projects and the pride they feel doing so.
We need to level the playing field and give women equal opportunity to thrive in transport and adjacent fields. This, in turn, will help close the skills gap that threatens to hold the sector back.”
Shilpi Akbar, Head of Stakeholders and Communities at Balfour Beatty VINCI said:
“It was great to talk to our visitors about the skills and apprenticeship programmes that BBV is leading on in order to inspire the next generation working in construction. We’re focused on providing employment opportunities for people across the Midlands region, as well as encouraging new entrants into the industry.”
HS2 is the largest infrastructure project in Europe, with 170 miles of new high-speed line already under construction between Crewe and London. The project is currently supporting nearly 30,000 jobs, including over 1,000 apprenticeships, across 350 sites. HS2 will be zero-carbon from day one of operation, will significantly improve connectivity in the North and Midlands, free up capacity for more local services and freight trains, and will also integrate with the existing network serving stations into Scotland.
