Construction supplies focus on new Aylesbury railhead

285,000 tonnes of aggregate for building HS2 to be delivered over four months.

A NEW railhead on the Princes Risborough line south of Aylesbury is expected to allow the delivery of 285,000 tonnes of aggregate for HS2 over a four-month period. HS2 Ltd estimates that delivery by road rather than rail to local construction sites would have led to carbon emissions of 9680 tonnes through 28,500 lorry journeys.

More than 500 trains have already transported materials to HS2’s site at Calvert, north of Aylesbury, since the first railhead serving it opened in December 2020. A second became operational last summer. Trains have been run by DB Cargo and Hanson, which are also operating services to the new Aylesbury railhead.

As a whole, the HS2 construction project is expected to utilise 15,000 trains delivering 10 million tonnes of aggregate.

Aggregates are unloaded at the railhead south of Aylesbury in the early hours of March 2. HS2