High Speed 1 (HS1)

Presenter: David Kelso

Virtual Meeting via Zoom

David gave us an illustrated tour of HS1 and the civil engineering work involved in bringing the cross channel rail link into the 21st Century. When the tunnel was opened it was a great and novel experience to travel from our capital city to Paris and Brussels without getting wet! The journey from Waterloo through the Kent countryside was rather pedestrian by modern standards, but the journey times were still an advance on the train-ferry-train of the previous hundred years and more. And then came the exciting bit, transitioning to full speed in France.

It was decided to bring our bit of the journey up to the same standards, and so a completely new railway was built from the tunnel to St Pancras. David showed us, by means of excellent photographs, explanations and anecdotes how this was brought about. He focused necessarily on the work in Kent (Phase 1) because viewpoints of the project north of the river (phase 2) were much harder for him to access. Nevertheless there was much of interest in this eastern half of the line.

For much of the route in Kent the new railway was constructed alongside the existing formation, but of course this was not virgin land. Along these ‘transport corridors’ there were many obstacles and pinch-points. In the Saltwood area deep excavations were necessary and the issue was complicated by the presence of extensive Anglo-Saxon burial grounds. Talbot House in the Sellinge area had to be moved. The viaduct to by-pass Ashford Station required piles of 42meters to cope with the sandy soil. Dumps of asbestos had to be contended with.

The new Medway Bridge won awards for its design and construction and David made the interesting point that the countryside grows back in time and after 10 years or so looks quite restored – surely more so than with major roads! Indeed the environment can actually be enhanced, as where a cut and cover tunnel enabled the formation of a new village green. Some consolation perhaps for those on the HS2 route.