A leading recruitment firm has warned that major rail projects could suffer from a lack of engineers in the UK.

Speaking to the Independent, managing director at Matchtech Keith Lewis said there might not be enough skilled technicians available to work on the Crossrail and High Speed 2 (HS2) developments during peak building periods.

The government is desperate to increase the nation's rail capacity and the Crossrail and Crossrail 2 schemes will make a big difference in London. However, it seems the large number of projects being launched over the next ten to 15 years could stretch the country's workforce to the limit.

"Clearly, there is a monetary impact with a number of programmes running concurrently," Mr Lewis was quoted as saying.

"The reality is we have an ageing workforce and the task is how we get more youth into engineering."

Although the Crossrail development is going to plan, it appears the HS2 project will face many obstacles before it becomes a reality - and not just because of the dearth of engineers.

The line has been widely criticised, although a number of court cases brought against the route were recently thrown out by judges.