Before lunch got under way Lord Broers welcomed the more than 120 guests (a sell-out) comprising many young engineers as well as policymakers. He then introduced for some preliminary observations, Phil Willis MP, Liberal Democrat, vice-chair of the Parliamentary enquiry into engineering in the UK and who has recently been appointed to chair the new House of Commons Science & Technology Select Committee and is also a vice chairman of APPEG .

Phil Willis MP : The year long enquiry had produced the report called: ‘Engineering: turning ideas into reality’. The main conclusion of that report was that every single challenge facing the nation needs an engineering solution. The committee had looked at a number of case studies under the headings of:

• Nuclear ( decommissioning)
• Plastic electronics
• Geo engineering
• Engineering in government

The committee had found that engineers in general are optimistic and energetic: he made the plea that engineers should celebrate what they do at the moment rather than look back.

The other clear conclusion they had reached was that companies did not want specialists. They want generalists so that companies themselves could do the specialist training. There was therefore a need for a big pool from which engineers can be drawn.

It was clear the government had a responsibility to deliver solutions. So far engineering in government had been most disappointing, but he was confident that the government had heard clearly the conclusions of the committee and was optimistic about a much better future.

Lord Broers then introduced Lord Adonis. Between 1988 and 1998 he was successively Fellow (in history and politics) of Nuffield College, Oxford; education correspondent and then Public Policy Editor at the Financial Times; and political columnist and leader writer at the Observer. He is also author or co-author of six books .
Lord Adonis is currently Secretary of State for Transport .This follows his tenures as Minister of State for Transport and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools and Learners at the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Lord Adonis: Lord Adonis began by saying that he wanted to sing the praises of engineering whilst observing that in recent years many engineers had gone into financial services rather than into engineering jobs. Perhaps one result of the recent crisis in the financial sector was that there would be a rebalancing so as to give engineers a higher profile. He was convinced that there was an exciting next generation of projects and that the presence of such projects would be the best motivator to attract engineers.

A prime example was the subject of today's lunch, namely High Speed Rail (HSR)..

Where is HSR internationally?

It is clear that HSR is the backbone of the transport systems of many other countries. The prime example is the Shinkansen trains in Japan which were introduced in the 1950s, inspired by a small group of engineers who pursued Japanese politicians to convince them of the need for high-speed connections between Tokyo and Osaka with a dedicated rail line and unheard of speeds of up to 210 km/h. With the help of loans from the World Bank it had achieved phenomenal success. The trains now travel every five or six minutes to Osaka and a second high speed line using maglev technology was now being discussed. This in itself would take several years to achieve.

The French had started their high-speed rail lines in 1981 with the service to Lyon, followed by the Channel Tunnel. HSR in France has developed into an extensive network. The French now think that they should have built four tracks to Lyon, such has been the success. M. Sarkozy, the President of France has accelerated the high-speed lines program.

Now every other European country, Spain, Germany, the Italians (tunnels under the Apennines ) as well as Asia (China, Korea and Taiwan) and now in the United States between Los Angeles and San Francisco have recognised that HSR is a hugely successful and economically extremely important factor in the overall economic well-being of advanced economies.

The reasons for success?

• Increased connectivity between commercial centres
• the carbon agenda
• getting freight off the road

It was clear to him that all this has passed us by!

We have only 68 miles of high-speed rail between London and the Channel Tunnel. We are very behindhand.
However said that even this small project had given the UK a lot of good experience and benefits and the new St Pancras station was something of which the country could be proud..

There was therefore a need to engage with the project being conducted by his Department and known as "High Speed 2". The project consists of the launch of a separate company called High Speed Two which is studying the feasibility and viability of a new line, referred to as High Speed 2, using trains capable of travelling at speeds over 150mph (240 km/h). As a first stage, initial proposals for a new line would be considered for routes between London and the West Midlands, with the new line extended in time to reach Scotland. Experience in other countries had shown that once the back bone routes had been established the rest of the HSR network would then develop. The company would report formally to the Government on the initial issues affecting this first stage by the end of 2009.
In the view of Lord Adonis there was no more exciting project for engineers at the present time than high-speed rail and he urged the audience to consider their future careers in this context.

Questions and Answers

The following issues were discussed:
Maglev: this would not be considered as an option for the UK for the time being for three reasons:

• cost
• currently no example of successful use of Maglev over long distances
• the lack of interoperability with the existing rail network

Skilled people: in the view of Lord Adonis it was the existence of exciting projects which would act as the prime motivator for students to want to become engineers. Network rail were now giving Masters degree course in project management for engineers so as to give them the skills needed in addition to engineering skills.

Private vs public ownership? Lord Adonis was of the view that private ownership works under the current structure, and that capital will continue to be needed both from the State and private sources for HSR projects.

Bicycles would need to be integrated into the rail system along with other methods of transport such as buses and the tube system. It was shaming that in the Dutch city of Leyden there are over 6000 cycle parks, whereas in all London terminals added together there are only 1000 cycle parks. Improvements are a priority.

Changing the energy balance: Electric technology will be used to take the project forward in a ‘Green’ way.

Mr Bill Olner MP, a vice-chairman of the Group gave the vote of thanks, noting his enthusiasm for HSR as a West Midlands’ MP.

To see some images of the event click here