HS2 rail line, China and £11.8bn contracts

hi speed train
Could the UK’s proposed HS2 project be influenced by Chinese involvement in the future?

24 September, 2015:  BBC News reported on George Osborne’s recent visit to China, where  he urged Chinese firms to pitch for £11.8bn in construction contracts for the UK’s proposed HS2 rail line.  On the same day, The Guardian reported that Osborne intends to invite competition for bids at an event in Chengdu; to encourage Chinese investors to back, as appears to be suggested by the BBC HS2 article, other major UK rail infrastructure projects, particularly across the north of England.

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Liverpool Edge Hill Station making Railway History

0-8-0 hauled freight train from Wapping Goods station
Edge Hill – photo: Michael Delamar.

Railways, as we understand them, have been around for the best part of two centuries. The world’s first “modern” railway system was engineered by George Stephenson and used flange wheeled, self-propelled [steam] trains operating on nowadays traditional railway tracks. The railway connected the industrial cities of Liverpool and Manchester and it is on this route we find Liverpool Edge Hill station making railway history.

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