High speed rail design firms in deals worth £8m

Preparations for work on the high speed rail line between London and Birmingham are forging ahead as two contracts worth a combined £8 million were awarded to companies.

Parsons Brinckerhoff has been chosen to design the high speed rail systems for the £32 billion scheme in a £4.3m contract.

The second contract, valued at £3.7m, covers the design of modifications to the existing rail systems at key points such as Euston, Old Oak Common and the connection to the West Coast mainline, to try to reduce disruption during construction.

The contracts have been awarded by HS2 Ltd, the quango set up by the Government to run the project before work starts in 2016. High speed rail will provide 225mph trains by 2026 and reduce the journey time bet-ween London and Birmingham to just over 45 minutes.

Parsons Brinckerhoff will prepare the preliminary designs for high speed and conventional railway systems. They will be used in drawing up the laws that will lead to the formal creation of the line.

Rhona Crawford, spokeswoman for HS2 Ltd said: "The designs will be used to inform the hybrid bill documents that are due to be submitted to Parliament by the end of 2013."

It comes after Arup, which has an office in Solihull, won the £11.4 million contract to design 22km, or 13.5 miles of the route.

Mott MacDonald will design the London end of the project while Atkins will have the south and Capita Symonds will take on the section through Warwickshire and Staffordshire.

High speed rail is expected to create thousands of jobs in the West Midlands. But Staffordshire County Council objected amid concerns that the line would tear up the countryside.