The future of Euston station as the final London terminus for HS2 is to undergo an early review, the new Transport Secretary said on Thursday.
Louise Haigh said she was “working at pace” to determine what to do with the proposed station and wider redevelopment of the area, which she said had been left as a “massive hole in the ground” by the last Tory government.
It put the Euston link on hold to ease cash-flow problems with HS2, meaning that Old Oak Common, a new station being built in north-west London, will be the southern terminus when the line opens around 2030.
Under the Tory plans, the HS2 station and wider redevelopment of the Euston area - which has been a construction site for years - would only go ahead with private sector investment.
Ms Haigh said it was too early in the life of the new Labour government to be able to guarantee that the last seven miles of HS2 would be completed, but suggested an announcement was due imminently.
Ms Haigh, visiting a London bus garage in Waterloo with Mayor Sadiq Khan, told the Standard: “The plans with HS2 are an absolute mess. To have a new line between Old Oak Common and Birmingham that has cost upwards of £60bn, worsening capacity north of Birmingham – only the Tories could spend £60bn on something and make it worse. We have a huge job to do to correct some of that.
“Clearly we need a plan around Euston and I am working at pace to work out how we can do that in the most cost-effective way. HS2 has been completely discredited by the previous government’s financial mismanagement.”
Asked whether she would prefer to open Euston eventually rather than scrap it, she said: “We absolutely want to explore options around Euston. They have left it as a massive hole in the ground. We need to have a plan for that and I’m working at pace to establish how we can do that in the most effective way.”
Euston lies within the Holborn and St Pancras constituency of the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, who previously opposed HS2 terminating at Euston. Ms Haigh said: “We are exploring options and I hope to say something very soon.”
She said the Government plans to renationalise the railways were unlikely to see South Western Railway or c2c to be among the first to be brought back in-house.
Both firms have contracts that are due to end next year. Ms Haigh said these were likely to end “too soon” to fall under immediate state control.
Instead she made clear her desire to tackle poor performance by Avanti West Coast, which runs high-speed services between Euston, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.
“We won’t tolerate their levels of performance any longer,” she said. “They have completely failed passengers on the west coast. There is more we can do on performance in the meantime, and we are not waiting for legislation to be on the books.”
Mr Khan and Transport for London want Government funding to speed up the switch to “zero emission” buses. About 1,500 of the capital’s 8,800-strong bus fleet is electric (and 20 are hydrogen). TfL also wants a multi-year capital funding deal after only getting £250m from the last Government last December- half of what it wanted.
But Ms Haigh said: “I know the mayor has come with a funding request. I have not come with my cheque book this morning. We will work together ahead of the CSR (comprehensive spending review) and Budget in the autumn to make sure transport infrastructure in London and across the country gets the investment it needs. We know it’s really important for growth.”
Mr Khan said: “The real prize for us is a long-term deal. That enables us to negotiate properly with the bus companies to get to all our buses being electric by 2030.
He said the South Western and c2C contracts ended too soon for TfL to bid to take control of some of their “metro” services within Greater London.
“We are talking to the Government about the possibility of taking over commuter trains coming into London. I think the more realistic one for us is Southeastern, which I think is three years away.”
Ms Haigh said the Government would not seek to force London to battle with the English regions for funding.
She said: “I don’t want there to be this conflict any more, and that was why I wanted to come and see Sadiq and do a visit in London early on to demonstrate that this Government isn’t going to work against London any more. We are going to work in partnership.”
