British high-speed railway looks to composite solutions
Engineers responsible for designing Britain’s new high-speed railway (HS2), potentially linking London with cities as far north as Glasgow and Edinburgh, have started investigating how fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) composite materials could play a key role in building the network.
During a two-day visit to the National Composites Centre (NCC) in Bristol, UK, earlier this year, the team led by High Speed Two (HS2) Limited’s (London) Professor Andrew McNaughton explored the opportunities of how to generate significant cost savings for HS2 through the potential use of advanced composite materials.
Working in partnership with Composites UK (Hemel Hempstead), the trade association for the UK composites industry, HS2 has decided to look at composite overhead line gantries, composite noise barriers, composite architectural roofing and station fittings; and composite bridges for further development.