Extra staff taken on by Walsall firm to meet HS2 demand

Extra staff are being taken on by a Black Country firm so it can support the construction work to build the HS2 rail line.

The V-shaped piers used to hold up viaducts are among materials being supplied by Altrad RMD Kwikform, based in Walsall.

Its contract has meant being able to plan for the firm's future, chief engineer Andrew Jones said.

But the work in Birmingham also means some small firms are forced to close.

Garage Cambridge Car and Commercials is near the site of HS2's new Curzon Street station.

But surrounded by the construction work amid road closures and pedestrianised areas, owner Mac McMeekan said the firm was losing £1,000 a week through dwindling work.

"It's the demise of a family business which has been going for 41 years," he added.

"Digbeth now is a ghost town but I can't see anything really being beneficial til 10 or 15 years time, after HS2 is finished."

Nearby vehicle company City Wheel Refurbishment is being forced to relocate due to the work and Belle Heggarty, from the firm, said the area was no longer the industrial hub it used to be.

"We're one of the last remaining industrial sites and yeah, we'll have to be leaving so it's not great at all," she said.

But the HS2 work is worth millions to RMD Kwikform and the firms who supply it, Mr Jones says.

"We are bringing in extra equipment and extra stock to use on the job. We have also been able to employ additional staff," he added.

The high speed rail line will also have a direct link to Birmingham Airport and chief executive Nick Barton said it would be like being a station on the London Underground.

"Getting us into London and out of London in 36 minutes, 37 minutes, whatever the final times are, is utterly unique and magnificent," he added.

HS2 trains are scheduled to carry the first passengers between Old Oak Common station, in west London, and Birmingham between 2029 and 2033.

And HS2's stop in central London at Euston station, on the underground's Northern and Victoria lines, is currently scheduled to open by 2035.

While some West Midlands-based firms benefitted, some would be disrupted, HS2 Ltd's chief executive Mark Thurston admitted.

"Our job is to be respectful of that and find a way of working with local people to minimise it's impacts," he told BBC Midlands Today.

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