HS2 cuttings and embankments

HS2 will ensure better journeys for rail users in the West Midlands, London and the Southeast, with more services, faster journeys and fewer delays.
It will provide new track, more trains, and faster journeys to improve performance and reliability across the wider rail network.
Travelling up to 225mph across a broad range of landscapes, HS2 trains need gentle gradients to maintain their high speeds by running above ground on embankments, and below ground in cuttings to deliver a smooth, reliable journey.
Cuttings take trains below the existing ground level. There are over 70 across the route from London to Birmingham, measuring over 72km (44 miles) in total. The deepest cutting is the Lower Thorpe Cutting at 30m deep, and the longest runs from Barton to Mixbury at 4.1km (2.5 miles) long.
Embankments raise above the ground and often connect with viaducts and bridges. The longest embankment and the largest of our 110 embankments on the London to Birmingham route will be Grendon Underwood, at 3km (1.8 miles) long.
Together embankments and cuttings provide a stable and durable foundation for high-speed rail track. Landscaped to minimise our impact on communities and the environment, and hiding the railway from the view will also reduce noise.
This is another example of HS2’s commitment to sustainable construction and how we are delivering a modern railway that will blend into the landscape.
Our trains will be powered by zero carbon energy, offering a cleaner, greener way to travel. Designed for extreme weather conditions you’ll be able to trust your journey on HS2.
Find out more at: www.hs2.org.uk/building-hs2/
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#HS2 #Construction #highspeed #train #animation #design #landscape
If you have a question about HS2 or our works, please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email [e-mail].

[@Samuel_J1]

Another great promo/explainer video. I feel like these should have been released years ago so that people actually understood all the work going into the project.

[@lordgemini2376]

definitely, but better late than never :)

[@roryhanlon927]

Agreed - there's too many pictures circulating of dug up fields without people understanding why.

[@DavidShepheard]

I'm very impressed by the "cutting inside an embankment" approach. The anti-railway campaigners have been complaining about the width of HS2, but this makes for a sound screen that looks more like a hillside than a big block of concrete. And the cutting at the top should make it easier to get green bridges across the railway, so that wildlife can go across the HS2 route, without intruding onto the tracks.

[@tomhoworth1685]

Although, with motorways everywhere, mostly unscreened and with constant road 'hum' (I should know, I live half a mile from a raised dual carriageway!), does anyone really hate the very brief sound of an electric train swoosh? It won't even clack as there are no joints in the rails and few points to run over.

[@LordSandwichII]

I understand the reasons, but it's also nice to see the scenery sometimes. 🥺

[@michaelashall4523]

Let’s get it fully completed. Stuff Sunak.

[@jayjay9610]

Exactly

[@hx0d]

up to Scotland 👏

[@LordSandwichII]

@@hx0d Then down to Cornwall and over to Wales next!

[@jermainetrainallen6416]

Great video. Loving the graphics

[@nevreiha]

Cracking video. Engaging graphics to accompany the information, hope more people give it a watch

[@quelragazzodeigiochi9166]

Incredible work, the designers did an incredible job.

[@ZDtue]

At 1:07 I was expecting an explanation on how they're going to deal with flooding - today, for instance, the West Coast Main Line was closed after being flooded.

[@Vazpro444]

LOVE IT!

[@mothermovementa]

Build the whole thing

[@rypieuwu]

teasing the return of the manchester and leeds branches at 1:26 ?

[@DavidKnowles0]

I will vote for anyone that promises that.

[@CRIMSONANT1]

​@@DavidKnowles0.. Labour will win the general election & Sir Keir Starmer, in a January interview, stated categorically that he wouldn't revive the Northern leg, saying .. "it wasn't possible to do as the tory government had blown the budget & contracts are going to be cancelled" which is excellent news as HS2 is an environmental disaster of epic proportions & Britain's biggest infrastructure mistake in half a century.

[@___-000]

No, that is where the HS2 will merge with the west coast mainline, where it will run on that line up to Glasgow and Edinburgh

[@CRIMSONANT1]

@@___-000 .. and where the trains won't run any faster than current services .. don't try & dress it up as a "high speed" railway north of Birmingham!

[@___-000]

@@CRIMSONANT1 Yup. Definitely not worth over £130 billion. At least if it ran up to Manchester before merging with WCML then fine. But if it's only up to Birmingham then it will only cut journey times by a small unecessary amount

[@willhemmings]

HS2 claims the route will 'require gentle gradients to deliver a comfortable journey.' Wrong. The gradient in the Chiltern Tunnel from Great Missenden to South Heath will be extremely uncomfortable; the gradient westwards off the Delta junction down to the valley of the River Tame will be so uncomfortable that the passengers will probably need vomit bags. As for the discourse on slope ratios, consider the cutting through the spur at Culworth. And in response to HS2's much lauded claim that more than half the route will be below surface, what a great misfortune that one of the finest historic landscapes in Warwickshire, the plain at Wormleighton, will be sliced through diagonally by the railway on an embankment

[@martinsloman6905]

Gradients do not cause passenger discomfort - certainly not HS2 gradients, which are limited to 3.5% maximum. The maximum gradient through the Chiltern Tunnel is 3% (1 in 33) at the north end. What causes motion sickness is vertical curvature. The amount of vertical curvature allowable varies with speed so the south end of the tunnel has 37,500m radius curvature whereas the north end increases that to 40,000m. That reflects an increase in linespeed from 320kph to 360kph. The French TGV has ruling gradients of 3.5% and it is noticeable when trains go from an ascending to descending gradient. That might be a roller coaster in railway terms but I doubt it causes any motion sickness.

[@___-000]

This reminds me of the surprisingly steep gradient when leaving the tunnel out towards Dagenham on the HS1. It felt like a roller coaster for a bit

[@cruzdacostaa]

Imagine if Manchester and Leeds are added back!

[@___-000]

I don't think they will

[@cruzdacostaa]

@@___-000 being hopeful with Labour

[@shaf1ke]

This doesnt show the leg to the North and Scotland, shame on Government

[@___-000]

Because there is no leg to the north and Scotland. HS2 ends just after Birmingham where it will merge with existing mainline (Similar to HS1 at Ashford and Ebbsfleet)

[@tomhoworth1685]

Even the longest cutting at 2.5 miles will only take 40 seconds to pass through at full speed. Not bad!

[@PhilBrown-ik1dk]

I haven't got the slightest interest in travelling at HS2 speeds, preferring existing 125 style trains that allow travellers to enjoy the passing landscape and changing weather and sky en route. I reckon most travellers prioritise low-priced journeys and aren't likely to switch to high speed and high-cost rail travel

[@jayjay9610]

The purpose of it is to free up capacity on the existing network, unfortunately they choose to use speed as a selling point

[@scottpeacock5492]

Unfortunely passengers will have no choice but to switch to the new High Speed 2 line as those Avantie trains or whoever the next franchise Holder will run the service as those intercity service will switch to the new High Speed line off the West Coast Mainline.

[@CRIMSONANT1]

​@@jayjay9610.. there are no "capacity issues" on the existing network. HS2 Ltd have been hoodwinking the public & the government since day one of this monstrous vanity project & all their lies & corruption have recently been exposed. Senior executives shredded documents & used misleading projections to ensure that billions of pounds kept flowing into the project. Whistleblowers claim they were told by bosses to lie about the project & were sacked after speaking out. They say the government wasn't informed of the real cost of HS2, all while voting on laws that approved Its construction. Take the WCML for instance .. arguments that it's "full to capacity" rely on a discredited, out of date forecasting model which overestimates long distance passenger growth & isn't used for anything anymore except to justify HS2. Network Rail's "New Lines Programme Capacity Analysis" shows that WCML capacity is kept artificially low by private operators wanting to maximise profits. A DfT analysis shows that in peak hours leaving Euston, WCML trains were loaded at just 52.2%.

[@gorgu08]

@@scottpeacock5492actually it will only be the HS2 train sets that go into the new track, the current Avanti rolling stock will still use the old WCML south of hansacre😊

[@scottpeacock5492]

@@gorgu08 Actually HS2 trains will rejoin the West Coast Mainline at Hanascre to run all the way to Manchester.

[@pilot341]

Virgin Trains West Coast or Virgin Trains InterCity.

[@jaimiepotts7638]

British Rail InterCity :D

[@Smart1529]

Where is Manchester and Leeds. Sunak is trash

[@mattgoodchild8215]

Over 200 mph kicking out 140 decibels of noise pollution full of lies and corruption and a devastating impact on SSSI sites

[@tomhoworth1685]

An incredibly brief electric train swoosh? I think you're thinking of steam trains. Or even Deltics!

[@mattgoodchild8215]

@@tomhoworth1685 few years back I went to a live demo which was set up by north Warwickshire council to demonstrate just how loud the train was going to be as it passes through the village of water Orton they used sound engineers with a big PA system and it was bloody loud a 140 decibels loud so I think your wrong pal and you can take your sarcasm stuff it in your pipe and smoke it 👍🏼have a lovely day although your probably the sort of person that’s always right yeah?

[@Engineering87272]

If it’s such an issue why don’t you hear about it from people living near HS1?

[@mattgoodchild8215]

@@Engineering87272 because they all live in or near London and they don’t live in or near a sssi site probably don’t even no what sssi stands for

[@petercrossley1069]

No longer a pretty journey; unable to see the countryside. A white elephant.

[@mrglide7078]

Yeah duh a white elephant cos can't see countryside innit

[@hx0d]

yada yada yada, people were roaring at Crossrail for being one too, yet its already pretty much paid for itself, nimbys only think about themselves and short term benefit

[@CRIMSONANT1]

@@mrglide7078 .. anyone who puts "innit" at the end of a sentence has already lost the argument because they're brain dead 😉

[@barryamorris]

Just to add: There is no climate crisis! So no need to save carbon! The world needs more CO2 not less. Trees and plants absorb it and give out oxygen! Without oxygen all life on earth dies out!

[@J-wm4go]

Of course you’re called Barry with a dunce misunderstanding like this. Back in the corner with you

[@barryamorris]

@@J-wm4go Someone needs to go back to school and learn basic science!

[@___-000]

​​@@barryamorris You are the one that needs to learn basic science with that secondary school knowledge of yours First of all: The population of plants and trees across the planet is massively decreasing overall, meaning that less photosynthesis occurs, even though the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. This results in a lot of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Second of all, increasing the amount of carbon dioxide won't be helpful to plants, as they can only handle a specific amount of carbon dioxide. Excess Carbon Dioxide and water is left out of the plant if it is unable to be stored, and this deteriorates the growth of the plant, as the plant is receiving too much oxygen in a very small surface area resulting in loss of leaf tissue. Third of all, plants are far from the biggest producer of oxygen in the world. Plankton in the ocean produce much larger amounts of oxygen than all forests on this planet, so even if plants stopped producing oxygen it wouldn't be the end of humanity. Fourth of all, the climate crisis is not just to do with carbon dioxide. It's to do with other gasses such as methane and Nitrogen Oxide, which is terrible for the environment and plants.

[@barryamorris]

@@___-000 I suggest you back to school. The earth has got substantially greener due to the increase in CO2. Plus plants don’t absorb oxygen, they absorb CO2. There is no climate crisis!

[@___-000]

@@barryamorris well done for pointing out the one small error in a word usage. But unfortunately, my point still stands. There is still a climate crisis. If the world is becoming greener, then let's keep it that way or make it even better. The climate crisis is still relevant.