OPINION: If it goes ahead, High Speed 2 should not run into London Euston
London Euston station can be a very hard station to like.
While other London transport hubs like St. Pancras, King’s Cross and Paddington have light and airy feels, Euston’s 1960’s rebuild feels like another world. After being rebuilt in the 1960’s to a brutalist architecture style, it often feels closed and claustrophobic. Certainly, its fairly grim colour scheme also doesn’t help.
It would be a good thing to see renovation occur. At first glance, the High Speed 2 rail project is a decent idea for this. The project is currently earmarked to terminate at Euston, and would need renovation to fit in high speed traffic for the planned route to Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds, plus further destinations beyond.
The project is going to be a huge deal if it goes ahead, which the government seems to insist that it will be. We’re now several years removed from when the then-Transport Secretary Lord Adonis proposed it. Somehow the UK has gone through 3 different governments, several different Transport Ministers, 2 Olympic games, a Brexit vote and more since its first proposition in 2009, and only has millions in consultancy fees to show for it. When its all finished, its likely to cost £55billion – maybe even £70bn.
The pros and cons of the project are fairly balanced. On the one-hand, a high speed London to Scotland route is overdue due to the crowded and unreliable West Coast and East Coast Mainlines. It would also help provide overdue infrastructure investment, give the UK a high-speed network up there with the rest of Europe, and free up space on the current mainlines to ease congestion on the heavily crowded commuter network.
But on the other hand, government data supporting the project is heavily flawed, the capacity issues on long distance Intercity routes is overstated in comparison with local London area routes, the project is likely to cause significant environmental damage, and its funding structure is spiralling out of control and looking increasingly unsustainable – even moreso following the post-Brexit collapse in the pound.
In all truth, the basic idea is right, but feels about 30 years late, and a parallel “High Speed 3” connecting Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds as an improvement on the often below-par network between the North’s major cities seems a more beneficial project. But while HS2 is not a project without merit, the plan to redevelop London Euston station is significantly outweighed by its negatives.
This segment of the project is going to be enormous. Indeed, one estimate suggested 10% of the entire HS2 budget would be spent on this one element.
On the face of it, the idea to give Euston HS2 is based on fast connectivity with Eurostar trains down the road at St. Pancras International. Plans to improve connectivity between the two terminals along the way have included “rapid transit people movers”, CrossRail 2, and improvements to Euston Underground, which would be merged with Euston Square. Historically, Euston also appeals – it was the first station for long distance trains in and out of London, and already has the supporting infrastructure.
But the huge expenditure provided in this part of the greater HS2 proposal is almost unsustainable, and not least given that, as is usually the case with big projects in London, the costs can only continually increase.
A significant problem can also be seen in the idea that a potentially 10 year+ renovation is intended to happen while trains are continuing to use the station. At present, 19 trains leave London Euston per hour, serving destinations all over the UK. Fitting all of these around significant renovation and reconstruction work.
One only need look to the other end of London for what can go wrong. At present, London Bridge station is undergoing its own significant reconstruction, as part of the Thameslink upgrade, and is due to finish in 2018. It is not an exaggeration to say this has directly contributed to the misery at Southern Rail, as well as the nosediving of reputations at Thameslink and Southeastern.
The issues there have sent alarm bells ringing at the operators of London Midland. In February, the parent company – which also runs Southern and Thameslink – has admitted alarm bells at the prospect of huge delays while this is going on.
As well as the scale of disruption to passengers, renovating Euston station will also have significant impacts on its local community. The idea has been for an expansion of the station from its current 18 platforms to 24, as well as extra tracks to carry the HS2 route from the station to west London, where it would diverge from the current mainline to a new Old Oak Common interchange with CrossRail and the routes out of London Paddington in the west of the capital, and then through tunnels onto the North.
To fulfill the space, this requires a significant alteration to adjacent Camden. The locals there have outlined how little they are looking forward to it, given it requires the demolition of over 200 flats, and significant disruption for businesses along the way. There will also be huge quantities of trucks, trailers and more taking part in the construction process, which will most likely cause significant disruption while this process is undertaken, and spoils are removed.
The fact Network Rail seems determined to do a two-step regeneration that will first see redevelopment of the mainline station and then the adding of the extra HS2 platforms is only going to increase the length of time this goes on for. This would take years – currently estimated at 17 – and given how big infrastructure projects in the UK usually overrun, the timescale of getting it all ready for the proposed HS2 opening in 2026 might not be quick enough. It is a big enough ask to expect travellers through Euston to cope with this, but to expect locals to live among it is a ridiculous step.
This part of the project has proven the most awkward. This aspect is proving unpopular among locals, has a negative reputation among pro-HS2 backers, and is proving a politically awkward goal. Among those to cast doubt of late is the new London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has suggested ending the project at Old Oak Common.
Regardless of whether High Speed 2 should or shouldn’t be built, the project for London Euston in its current form is unsuitable and potentially unsustainable. This part of the project is going to need a significant rethink or else it will be enough to throw the whole project off track all by itself.