The new chief executive of HS2 faces an even bigger challenge getting the project completed than he did finishing Crossrail, according to the Rail Minister.
Mark Wild spent his first day in the job visiting the HS2 site at Old Oak Common, which will become the temporary London terminus for the line when it opens around 2030.
Lord Hendy, previously chairman of Network Rail and a former London transport commissioner, told The Standard: “It’s a bigger project – this is the biggest construction project in western Europe, and currently – as a new Government – we don’t know how much it’s going to cost or how long it’s going to take.
“So he’s got a big job to do – but he can do it.”
Lord Hendy said the government wanted “certainty” around HS2, and for Mr Wild to take responsibility for delivering HS2 and to get to grips with the project’s budget.
The cost of tunnelling to Euston and the cost of building a new HS2 station at Euston are both unknown.
In addition, there isn’t a fixed date for HS2 services to start at Euston - but the hope is that this can be delivered before 2040.
The most recent figures, from the previous Tory government, were for the line between Birmingham to London to cost between £45bn to 54bn - though the HS2 board estimated a cost of £49bn to £57bn.
Lord Hendy said: “We want to see somebody own a programme, own the cost of it and deliver it. We know he [Mr Wild] has done it once so he can do it again.”
Asked about the HS2 station at Euston, Lord Hendy said: “The vision for HS2 at Euston is to have a combined station.
“If you are a passenger on the national railway system, you should turn up and it should serve you with trains to where you want to go.
“The HS2 station has got to be part of it. The Network Rail station has got to be part of it. The Tube station has got to be big enough that it doesn’t close every time it gets full of people. That is a big job in itself.”
He said the Department for Transport is reviewing how the new station would be funded, but added that a development partner, Lend Lease, was already in place.
“The joint aim is to get the best station we can, to build as much over and round it as possible, to get as much private financing as we can too.
“The next job is to sort out how we do the station. The [first] job is to build a tunnel to get there.”
Asked it would have been mad for HS2 not to have gone to Euston, Lord Hendy said: “Absolutely. I completely agree.
“I’m so delighted that these machines are going to bore their way into central London.”
Huw Edwards, HS2’s stations delivery director, said many of the benefits that HS2 would bring were hidden from the public behind construction hoardings.
“The benefits that come from this scheme are vast, and I look forward to the day when the public are able to see those tangible benefits,” he said.
Asked whether HS2 would arrive at Euston by 2040, Mr Edwards said that Old oak Common was due to open between 2029 and 2033 and added: “The extension of services into Euston hasn’t got a fixed date around it right now, but we are working closely with central Government on what that window is for extending to Euston.”
Mr Wild saw two giant tunnel boring machines that have been put into place at Old Oak Common in preparation for starting to tunnel south-east to Euston later in 2025.
The 1,250-tonne machines have been named Karen and Madeleine after Karen Harrison, the first female train driver in the UK, who was based out of Old Oak Common depot, and Madeleine Nobbs, the former president of the Women’s Engineering Society.
HS2 said that Mr Wild, who left Crossrail when it opened under central London as the Elizabeth line in May 2022, would help to oversee HS2’s “transition from a major construction programme to a working railway, with a renewed focus on controlling costs”.
It said that final plans for the future HS2 terminus station at Euston were “still under review” and that HS2 Ltd was continuing to work with the Government and other stakeholders “to design an affordable station design that can run HS2 services from London to the Midlands”. Further details will be announced by the Government in due course.
