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Professor Rod Smith FREng is Research Professor of Railway Engineering at Imperial College London and Chair of the Future Railway Research Centre.
He was Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department for Transport from 2013 to 2015, and in 2011 he was President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Prof. Smith is a strong supporter of HS2. But on 30 June he will make a major presentation at the High Speed Rail in the UK Conference in Birmingham where he will describe his serious concerns about the way it’s been designed, arguing that it is a recipe for high costs, low capacity and slow speeds.
He will argue that it is not too late to build a truly high speed rail network in the UK – but that the current plans are not fit for purpose.
Journalists came to the SMC to hear Prof. Smith describe his concerns and put their questions to him.