Pictures show HS2 launching a 316-tonne machine component that will dig its way under west London. <br /><br />A crane was seen lowering part of the massive Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) into the ground, with HS2 emblazoned on the side. <br /><br />This TBM set to dig 3.4 miles of dirt beneath the capital.<br /><br />The 7.10 metre tall and 19 metres long white cylinder is a 316-tonne shield for the machine.<br /><br />It will protect workers from shards of rock as it whirrs through the ground from Victoria Road Crossover Box, Ealing, to Greenpark Way, Greenford. <br /><br />Once it Greenford, it will link up with the five-mile tunnel currently being excavated from West Ruislip, known as the Northolt Tunnel, built by another TBM.<br /><br />Several other TBM parts are being winched underground in Old Oak Common, west London, which is promised to become “the best-connected and largest new railway station ever built in the UK.”<br /><br />Each TBM will be officially named on October 23.
