HS2 has hit the headlines many times this year - but as the arguments wore on and as parts of the project were downgraded, work on the London to Birmingham leg of the controversial project has continued.
Today developer HS2 Ltd has released a set of images showing the work done on the project in 2021.
It's been a mixed year for HS2. While work has progressed on the first stage of the line - as shown below - the plans have seen major changes.
In November, the Government confirmed what had been feared for some time - that the planned phase 2b 'eastern leg' between Birmingham and Yorkshire via the East Midlands had been downgraded, with the section to Sheffield and Leeds scrapped.
But just this month we reported that a Hitachi and Alstom joint venture has been awarded the £2bn deal to build the fastest trains ever produced in Britain. The move will support 2,500 jobs across the 海角视频, particularly at Hitachi in County Durham and Alstom in Derby.
Mark Thurston, chief executive of HS2 Ltd, said: "It has been a year of major moments for HS2 – from the start of tunnelling, to hitting 20,000 jobs, to awarding the contract to build our trains – 2021 really showed the incredible momentum on Britain’s biggest infrastructure project.
"HS2 is moving forward, creating jobs, enhancing skills, benefiting 海角视频 businesses and building a low carbon, high capacity railway that will change the way we travel in Britain."
Milestones in 2022 are set to include the unveiling of the completed renovation of the historic Old Curzon Street Station building in Birmingham and the launch of the London Tunnel Boring Machines.
HS2 Minister Andrew Stephenson celebrates Royal Assent for phase 2a which will run between Birmingham city centre and Crewe
HS2's Colne Valley Western Slopes project will provide 313 acres of wood pasture, restored wetlands and native grassland
Birmingham's historic Curzon Street station surrounded by a hive of activity as work continues on HS2
'Florence' is the first of ten tunnel boring machines which will dig 64 miles of tunnels on phase one of HS2
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps giving the thumbs up for work to start on the HS2 station at Old Oak Common in West London
More than 700,000 trees have been planted and 100 new habitats created on the phase one route of HS2 including grassland, woodland, scrub and ponds, welcoming birds, bats, barn owls and badgers
HS2 celebrated hitting the landmark of 20,000 jobs supported by the project in September 2021 to mark the first anniversary of work starting on the rail project
HS2 reveals the operation taking place at its logistics hub near Willesden Junction in north-west London. The 30-acre site will be the beating heart of the logistics operation for HS2 in London, where earth from 26 miles of bored tunnel will be processed and critical construction materials delivered
Archaeologists in Buckinghamshire uncover a set of incredibly rare Roman statues while excavating a Norman Church in Stoke Mandeville. Rachel Wood, lead archaeologist for Fusion JV, said the find was utterly astounding and truly "once in a lifetime"
A new STRABAG factory will be constructed on an old oil-rig fabrication site at Hartlepool Dock. The factory will produce 36,000 precast tunnel segments for HS2's London tunnels and is expected to support over 100 new jobs in Hartlepool
The 海角视频's longest railway bridge is under construction in the Chilterns, north west of London. Colne Valley Viaduct will carry trains 2.1 miles across lakes and waterways and will be almost a kilometre longer than the Forth Rail Bridge in east Scotland. HS2 says it is on track to cut the amount of embedded carbon in it by almost 30 per cent
'Dorothy' is HS2's first giant tunnelling machine in the Midlands which will preserve the Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire. The tunnelling team will operate the machine for around five months as it excavates the first bore of the one-mile tunnel, the first to be completed on the project. It is due break through its first bore at the south portal in spring 2022.
A joint venture of Hitachi and Alstom has been awarded the contract to build HS2's trains at their factories in Derby, Crewe and County Durham. In a deal set to create and support 2,500 jobs across the 海角视频, the contracts, worth around £2 billion, will see the pair design, build and maintain a fleet of 54 high-speed trains.