CIVIL ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION
Beyond Brussels
There are welcome signs that the integration of the British rail network with the strategic European transport network is fi nally gathering pace, with both freight and passenger operators from across the continent looking at making greater use of HS1 – most notably Deutsche Bahn.
Hill said: “It’s fantastic. The whole point of HS1 was that it was fi nally, via the Chan- nel Tunnel, connecting the UK rail network into the continental network and it was always the dream that you’d have these services, far more comprehensive than just London to Paris and Brussels.
“You would have services from the UK regions going to nearby western Europe, and going from London further afi eld into Europe.
“Originally, some special Eurostars were built, which were going to be the regional Eurostars that could travel onto greater parts of the network. So I think it’s to be supported that different railway operators or train operators would want to offer a far more comprehensive service.”
Workforce worries
A continually expanding network, phased electrifi cation, and major civil engineering projects, however, all depend on having a skilled workforce able to do the work, and skilled project managers able to deliver them on-time and on-budget. Schemes
which fail these tests – such as the Edin- burgh tram project – risk having a chilling effect.
But with the founding of NSARE and an apparent commitment in at least parts of the industry to focus on the future, how does Hill think we stand?
He said: “I think the attraction of engi- neering seems to vary based on how the economy’s going. I think actually it’s very attractive now because people are actually realising how important infrastructure is and how important investment is, whether it’s in manufacturing, or the infrastructure of the nation that is coming.
“And therefore the demand, from albeit a low position, is going to be increasing. Civil engineering, I think is absolutely fascinat- ing because it is all about the unpredict- ability of the ground and the weather and actually making that infrastructure, and therefore we just need some of the bright- est and the best to come into engineering. I think we’re seeing that happen.”
Hill was recently given an educational dis- tinction himself, after being given an hon- orary degree by City University London. He was given the Award of Doctor of Science Honoris Causa for his “numerous contri- butions to the global transport industry”, and was described by Professor Dinos Ar- coumanis, City’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and International, as a “world expert” on these issues.
Speaking at the ceremony, Hill said: “My involvement with City, that most innova- tive of universities, is with its Collabora- tive Transport Hub, which aims to bring the brightest together to address one of the largest global challenges – making cit- ies tick. Making the cog wheels of a city’s transport system mesh.
“The rate of growth of cities is such that we will have to build as much urban settle- ment in the next 40 years as we did in the last 7,000, so I am thrilled and delighted to receive this honorary degree and I hope to be able, in a small way, to use it and my involvement here to help cities and indeed City University London.”
City centre
We asked him to explain a little more about collaborative transport, and his own asso- ciations with City.
He told us: “They have a very innovative way of looking at transport through the City Collaborative Transport Hub, which looks across all disciplines towards how we’re going to put more research into making transport far more effi cient, and far easier to use. The application of new technology to transport is completely transforming the way in which we look at it, whether through immersive simulation, whether it is how we navigate our way around, or the way vehicles are going to be controlled in the future.
“All of these are specialist areas that City has got fantastic research and collaborative capabilities in. I think there’s further we can go yet: there are some big behavioural issues about transport. RTM readers must know that there are some fairly bizarre re- sults from people’s understandings of the different risks about safety in transport.
“People still want to travel by car, which is one of the least safe ways of getting around, and spurn things like aviation. We can’t criticise people for that, but we do have to understand the behavioural psychology that comes into those decisions.
“So it’s not just about engineering at City’s Collaborative Trans- port Hub; it’s about to- tal cross-disciplinary approaches to improv- ing the environment for transport.”
Terry Hill CBE FOR MORE INFORMATION
Visit
www.arup.com and
www.city.ac.uk/engineering-maths
rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 11 | 31
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