I thought some of you - the more patient ones, anyway - might be interested in this lecture from last week, if only because the speaker was the Chief Engineer and Technical Director of
HS2▸ . The publicity in
IET▸ .TV said this:
About the presentation
Britain's Rail Future - User focused, technology driven and engineering led
Andrew McNaughton passionately believes that success in transforming Britain's railways to become the transport of choice for coming generations relies absolutely on matching future passenger and freight users' expectations.
Drawing on examples of leading edge practice from around the world and his own forty years of operational and engineering experience, he will take a practical systems of systems approach to charting the way forward.
He will explain how much has to change and describe radical evolutionary solutions based on social needs, technology possibilities and engineering common sense. He will emphasise the engineering profession's leadership responsibility.
About the speaker
Andrew McNaughton has been engaged in railway construction, operation and management since 1973. He is Honorary Professor of Rail Engineering at Nottingham University and a Visiting Professor of Engineering at both Imperial College London and Southampton University.
Since 2009 Andrew has been Chief Engineer and Technical Director of High Speed Two Ltd, developing the principles, network and specific route design for high speed rail in Great Britain.
Prior to that, from 2001 he was Chief Engineer of Network Rail responsible for the specification and development of the GB▸ rail network, investment authorisation and overall system safety management.
Andrew has been Vice Chair of the EU» Transport Advisory Group and Chair of the European Rail Research Advisory Council.
He is a Special Advisor on rail to the Australian Government and has lectured on the transport, land use and economic planning effects of regional, freight and long distance rail development in North America, Asia and Australia as well as Europe.
Andrew is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Civil Engineers, Royal Geographical Society and Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.
There is a TV recording of the whole event, in the page given above or directly from
this link. But you will need a fair bit of patience; the talk itself lasts an hour, and as a formal lecture comes complete with introductions, questions, etc. I think it is is rather disjointed, and almost offhand in places, but interesting nonetheless.
PS: You may recognise the venue as the Royal Institution, despite the hosts being the IET - we've got the builders in at Savoy Place.
