Although everyone’s attention is firmly focused on the cuts which the government will have to make to the transport budget, there is a much more worrying cloud on the horizon.

In about thirty years the majority of British engineers who are currently working will have retired and there will not be enough new recruits to take their place.

This is why people like Gil Howarth and Pete Waterman have worked so hard to put together the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering.

Although the academies (there is also a second one which focuses on tunnelling techniques for projects such as Crossrail) have been given £3 million by the government, it is now up to the rest of industry to invest further in them.