The Engineer

Andrew McNaughton, technical director, HS2

In-Depth

Track record: Contrary to negative perceptions, HS2 will become a vital part of the UK’s infrastructure, Andrew McNaughton tells Stuart Nathan

Of all the major engineering projects in the UK, HS2, the proposed high-speed rail line whose fi rst phase will run between London and Birmingham, probably attracts the most opprobrium. It’s been branded a white elephant with no business case or environmental case; a money sink; or only of benefit to developers.

Yet the project’s technical director, Andrew McNaughton, doesn’t have the air of an embattled man. One of the country’s leading railway engineers with track records in both academia and on the ground, McNaughton believes that HS2 is a vital part of the UK’s future infrastructure. Moreover, he believes that the project has been consistently misrepresented.

For a start, he explained, it isn’t a line, and it isn’t a link between London and Birmingham. ‘HS2 is a network in the making,’ he said. ‘It’s a Y-shaped network made in two stages, and it’s as much about connectivity in the north as it is about capacity in the south.’

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