In the vision of HS2 published by the government a decade ago, a gleaming new station should now be taking shape at Euston, with the first high-speed trains to whisk passengers from London to Birmingham just a couple of years away.
Things have not, of course, quite panned out like that. The scars of the early works are evident in the area of central London surrounding the station: the vanished buildings, parks, trees, pubs and half of Drummond Street. Portholes on the hoardings that line the way to the remaining south Asian restaurants allow a view on to a mothballed site where a muddy Euston pond is forming.
Work here is, at best, halfway through the “pause” – the two-year hiatus announced by transport secretary Mark Harper in March 2023 to defer the soaring costs of the scheme. Since then, however, the whole HS2 project has been mired in doubt: its northern branches have been pruned relentlessly from its original Y-shaped plan, culminating in a decision to axe the whole line north of Birmingham. At the time that decision was taken, Rishi Sunak also said the first miles from Euston should be paid for with private funds.
Many in rail fear that a government seeking value for money has risked the worst of all outcomes: creating a very expensive, high-capacity rail line in the south which never quite reaches its desired aims – and forcing up the final bill through further delay and indecision.
Euston station itself is only partially conceived, with more than £100m of design work already jettisoned even before the latest tweaks to the specifications removed another platform. Consecutive scathing public accounts committee hearings in parliament have noted, tragicomically, first that the government does not know “what it is trying to achieve” at Euston; or even, next, “how HS2 will function as a railway”.
Along the tracks for half a mile to Camden, some work has continued during the pause, deemed too advanced to stop, and enmeshed with long-planned utility works.
The team of contractors – Skanska Costain Strabag – working on the zone leading to the station, which is known as Euston Approaches, make it clear that a pause was never welcome. Its managing director, James Richardson, said: “We have to continue with critical works now – otherwise it would make it difficult, if not impossible, to revive in the future.”
Many of the 3,500 workers here have been redeployed within the firms, but some continue preparing the future tunnels out of Euston, including a giant concrete box where HS2 trains will switch lines to different platforms. More than 1,000 deep piles have been planted in the narrow sliver of ground between John Nash’s historic villas in Regent’s Park and the west coast mainline.
In Germany, meanwhile, two huge multimillion-pound tunnel boring machines are being manufactured, to be brought to Britain and sunk into the earth at Old Oak Common – the station that will, for some uncertain time, act as the London terminus.
Richardson’s team is working on the assumption that the machines will indeed bore the tunnel from Old Oak to their site in April next year. So far, funding is far from guaranteed – although the soundings in a note accompanying the chancellor’s spring budget appear positive.
According to the Department for Transport, officials are working on possible financing mechanisms, with a ministerial taskforce being set up to oversee work. A spokesperson said it was “committed to delivering a privately financed Euston station, helping to deliver value for money for the taxpayer … There is already extensive support and interest from the private sector to invest.”
Others are not convinced: an industry source said it was “smoke and mirrors”, while London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has said plans to rely on private investment to find the £6.5bn are “verging on fantasy”. A source close to Khan warned Euston could be “cancelled by stealth”, adding: “Ministers need to urgently demonstrate that they actually support HS2 going to Euston – not just with empty words, but with financial backing.”
John Dickie, chief executive of BusinessLDN, which represents businesses in the capital, said the private sector “needs clarity around how the project will be structured, financed and funded … sooner rather than later” to create confidence to invest.
Camden council last month published a report that foresees a potential £41bn economic uplift over 30 years from regenerating Euston station and the surrounding area – although it outlines space for only 2,500 new homes, rather than the 10,000 the government claims could help attract developers to the site.
Council leader Georgia Gould said the district was at “a critical juncture”, adding: “We are determined to see promises to these residents kept.”
At the other end of HS2’s remaining “phase 1” work, past Birmingham, rail planners are struggling to make sense of the amputated line. HS2 was the central pillar of Network Rail’s wider infrastructure plans, freeing capacity on the existing railway and allowing for growth, with a route that would allow high-speed travel between the capital and Manchester and Leeds. A recent industry study reaffirmed that passenger numbers on Britain’s railways could double by 2050, despite the pandemic hiatus.
Proponents see the decision to cancel the short “phase 2a” stretch from Birmingham to Crewe as particularly galling, given its relatively low cost and the advanced stage of the works. Congestion is likely to increase around existing bottlenecks once HS2 services start.
Rail leaders are now looking for alternative solutions that do not cause more years of disruption on the west coast mainline. As a senior rail source put it: “A high-level strategic planner might say you will probably come to a conclusion that more or less mirrors HS2.”
And some already have – although, in the current political climate, they won’t be calling it that. The mayors of the West Midlands and Manchester, Andy Street and Andy Burnham, have been working with construction and engineering firms – and indeed an ex-HS2 supremo, David Higgins – on alternative ways to connect their cities. Last week they announced that the best option was to build a new line, on the same exact route. “It’s really encouraging because they do believe there are better-value alternatives,” Street said.
The government, and a Labour party keen to avoid spending commitments, may prove receptive to a cut-price line north, especially with private finance options attached. Scope to reduce spending on what critics have labelled a gold-plated railway is limited.
Despite speculation that the train order could be changed, manufacturer Alstom is clear that it is continuing work to meet the 2021 contract it won alongside Hitachi – and that any variation to the order placed three years ago would cost, rather than save, money. The 57 trains are, however, compatible with existing tracks, and thus usable elsewhere if fewer HS2 services ever run.
While the era of the Euston hole rumbles on, and northern metro mayors attempt to ensure the £36bn Sunak said he saved by cancelling HS2 is indeed still spent on a line crossing the north, at least one city seems to be unequivocally gaining from the £50bn-plus train line.
“Getting to Birmingham 20 minutes quicker”, as the old lazy jibes about HS2 had it, is no small thing in the UK’s second city. Nick Barton, chief executive of its redeveloping airport, has a new market in his sights – with or without Euston, given eventual access from Old Oak via the Elizabeth line to prime London. Work would soon start on the high-speed rail interchange at Birmingham International, Barton said: “With that station connected to HS2, we will be 38 minutes from Bond Street.”
