20 years of high-speed railways in UK – David Hanger
On 23rd April, for the final meeting of the 2023-24 session, David Hanger presented his talk ‘20 years of high-speed railways in UK’ to the Branch.
David’s talk discussed BR’s experience with high-speed trains following the electrification of the WCML in the 1960s, which raised the average speeds to 100mile/h to the experimental Advanced Passenger Train to the successful HSTs, the IC225 and latterly Pendolinos and Voyagers.
He then described the construction and operation of the Channel Tunnel and subsequent building of the CTRL and the variations in the route into Waterloo then later into St Pancras International.
David was working in various areas in close proximity to CTRL during construction and was able therefore to photograph the various stages of the construction works at first hand.
To complete his presentation he described the planning of HS2 and the construction of the truncated route and posed the question ‘Why doesn’t HS1 join up with HS2?’
A well-researched and illustrated talk which was well received by the 22 members and guests present,