News

• Mark Harper MP, Secretary of State for Transport, joined HS2 Ltd CEO Mark Thurston for a drive-through of the first bored tunnel at Long Itchington in Warwickshire, as momentum continues to build on the project
• The 2,000 tonne TBM broke through in July after 7 months of digging the one-mile tunnel. Today marks the first time VIPs and media have been able to travel end-to-end in a tunnel on the UK’s new high speed network
• Photos here: https://visual.library.hs2.org.uk/p/share/oROMdIZln54l 

• The Ruislip Northwood Old Folks Association is the first project in the Uxbridge & South Ruislip parliamentary constituency to receive funding through HS2’s Community & Environment Fund (CEF)
  • The MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Boris Johnson, visited the centre in Elm Park, Ruislip on Monday [28/11/2022] to meet volunteers behind the project

• Volunteers from HS2 and its contractor Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) have planted 300 tree saplings at Corley Academy near Coventry
• The trees were donated by HS2 part of the Queen’s Green Canopy tree planting initiative
• 300 biodegradable tree guards were also donated by Northants company Ezee Tree Ltd
• Photos here: https://mediacentre.hs2.org.uk/resources/f/environment/tree-planting-2/trees-donated-to-corley-academy 
• Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXCZCJ5scGY

HS2 Ltd has partnered with Queens Park Rangers football club to give its youth team squad a unique insight into life on a construction site with a visit to the site of HS2’s Old Oak Common superhub station.

• Since 2017, HS2’s ecologists have planted around 845,000 trees and created 119 new habitat sites, covering an area equal to 650 football pitches.
• 160 new ponds are now homes for wildlife, 2,000 bat boxes installed, and thousands of newts successfully translocated.
• Pictures of mature trees, ponds and wildflower meadows through the summer months: https://mediacentre.hs2.org.uk/resources/f/environment/tree-planting-2/five-years-of-tree-planting 
• Video here: HS2 celebrates five years of tree planting and habitat creation - YouTube

Today [Thursday 24 November] HS2 Ltd’s CEO Mark Thurston hosted Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt and Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street at HS2’s Interchange Station construction site in Solihull.