Thousands of school children are set to be invited to walk through Crossrail’s tunnels shortly before trains begin to run in two years’ time, the Transport Secretary has revealed.

 

Patrick McLoughlin told an audience of rail industry professionals in Birmingham on Monday: “Before we start running Crossrail I’m hoping to get young people down into the tunnels over a six to eight week period, to showcase the engineering behind the project. Crossrail is a remarkable project and I’d really love to do something like this that just might spark their imagination.”

 

The ’High Speed Rail Industry Leaders’ event also heard from Engineering UK’s chief executive Paul Jackson who said the profession needs to work harder to engage with the next generation. He gave details of an experiment currently being developed with a consultant and university to help children struggling with their science or maths homework to be helped online by an engineer.

 

“We are trying to find different ways of reaching out to young people,” he said. “Getting engineers to stand up, talk about their jobs and try to be a role model is great on breakfast television, but no-one is going to find that on a YouTube search.”

 

Former Tomorrow’s World presenter Maggie Philbin, who now leads educational resource TeenTech, added that social media remains an untapped area for the promotion of engineering. “If you ask young people where they get their information they will say YouTube,” she said. “They tend not to go onto company websites unless they are applying for jobs. We do need to be sharper and cleverer about this.”

 

(Photo: Crossrail Ltd)