Sadiq Khan has stressed the urgency of bringing High Speed 2 to Euston just hours before the Government announces spending cuts which could include cancelling the required tunnel link.
The mayor claimed not to have any advance knowledge of the cuts due to be detailed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in a speech on Monday afternoon.
In a morning interview with Times Radio, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden refused to rule out terminating the line at Old Oak Common, in west London.
But speaking to the Standard, Mr Khan suggested he was optimistic that the line will still be brought to Euston.
“My own view is that a High Speed train that goes from the West Midlands to west London is not what was promised,” the mayor said, adding that he wasn’t sure what the “attraction” of such a route would be for travellers.
“What do I know, from my conversations with the Government over the last three weeks, is that they do understand the importance of infrastructure for growth,” he said.
“They also understand the importance of London for growth. That, I would hope, bodes well.”
When the last Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced last year that the Euston leg of the railway would be privately financed, Mr Khan said this could “result in the Euston terminus being cancelled by stealth”.
He said then that this “would be a devastating blow for passengers using the line and for the economy of London and the whole country”.
But on Monday, the mayor adopted more measured language, saying: “I think if HS2 doesn’t eventually come to Euston, it’s a problem.”
He added: “It’s a problem for doing a cost-benefit analysis of HS2. It’s a question for increased capacity, it’s a question for, equally, speed. Because once you come to Old Oak Common, you’ve got to jump on a Tube - an overcrowded Tube, probably, or Elizabeth line - to get to where you want to go. So it goes to the actual fundamentals of what the purpose of HS2 was.”
He stressed that any suggestions of cuts to HS2 were at this stage “hypothetical”, as Ms Reeves had not yet given her speech.
Mr Khan said he wanted to see the Chancellor be “transparent” but also not give “false hope” to Londoners.
In conversations with the Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, the mayor said he had argued that “we need not just a long-term capital deal [for Transport for London], but we think Euston is in a situation where families have lost their homes - they’ve been demolished - businesses have lost their buildings - they’ve been demolished - and it currently looks like it’s just blight”.
He asked: “What is the benefit of that blight? That’s why there needs to be an answer to that question - what is the future of Euston?
“My view? The future of Euston is HS2 coming to that station, the public realm being improved, the bus station being improved, [and] that community seeing the benefits.
“But clearly that can only happen if the Government can afford to do so and also, there’s a good partnership between us and them. I think there is - between the council, between us, between businesses and the Government. The key thing is to find out how good or bad the public finances are.”
