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Presentation matters in debate around HS2

Yes, presentation of HS2 has been a huge issue for the Rail engineering industry. Or more accurately misrepresentation. You really get the sense that the UK Rail industry has become so besotted by the idea of HS2 that common sense has gone out of the window and engineers will say anything in support of the project - no matter how inaccurate. I have been engaged with HS2 at a community level since 2010 and the lack of professionalism and/or patronising attitude from the engineers I’ve dealt with has been quite staggering - one senior engineer denying there would be any heat or transmission problem with buying national grid cables alongside the track. Andrew McNaughton gives a messianic view of a train system which will transform the UK, claiming it will carry 1,100 people per train with 36 trains per hour 19hrs a day. Does he really believe lay-people are gullible enough to believe, without challenge, that nearly twice the population of Edinburgh will be travelling in and out of Euston every day? The public always hears the up-side and never the downside of major projects from the Engineering industry. We never seem to hear Mr McNaughton or other senior engineering figures speaking out on what could go wrong with the HS2 project. When challenged by Joe Public, the shutters seem to go up and a patronising attitude descends. And we end up with disastrous projects like the Edinburgh Trams project or the WCML upgrade and Joe Public is told it’s everyone’s fault but the engineers. As a former engineer from a country where the term “Engineer” by law means Chartered Engineer and Engineers held in the same esteem as Doctors, I’ve always wondered why engineering is held in such low esteem in the UK. Having been involved with HS2 and the engineers associated with HS2 I’m beginning to understand why.

30 May 2012

4:02 pm