Government confirms HS2 tunnels will reach Euston station
The government has confirmed that it will dig the HS2 tunnels from Old Oak Common to Euston station, although it hasn’t proposed any new plans to build Euston station itself.
The two tunnel boring machines that will dig the tunnels from Old Oak Common to Euston are already in the UK and are being assembled at Old Oak Common. The current plan was to seal them into a box next to the station, ready to be used if and when they are needed to complete the railway to Euston station.
Euston station is currently on hold pending some new scheme, but it’s always been expected that it would be built – eventually.
There were also expectations last year that the tunnels would get the go-ahead to be dug regardless, as they would be needed anyway, and it’s cheaper and easier to dig them now than to do so later.
The budget statement says “HS2 trains will run to Euston, with funding provided for tunnelling to the central London terminus, catalysing private investment into the station and local area. Investment at Euston will be further supported through the appointment of Bek Seeley to chair the Euston Housing Delivery Group, to drive forward an ambitious housing and regeneration initiative for the local area.”
Although the budget statement didn’t include the costs, the tunnels have been previously estimated to cost of around £1 billion, there have also been renewed calls to revive the dropped link with HS1, although that would add around £100 million to the cost.
There’s also a question over how the tunnels will fan out on the approach to Euston. A cut-down Euston station would require one fewer crossover junction, which would lower costs but lock in a shrunken station forever.
A spokesperson for HS2 Ltd said: “We welcome the commitment from the government to build HS2 all the way to Euston and will now prepare for construction of the Euston Tunnel. Two giant tunnel boring machines are already being assembled at Old Oak Common in West London to dig the 4.5 miles of underground high-speed railway that will carry HS2 trains into central London.
“A terminus station for HS2 in the heart of the capital will provide a vital gateway for passengers travelling to and from the North and Midlands and will lead to the transport-led regeneration of Euston – supporting growth in the local economy and creating thousands of new homes and jobs.”
After the last government paused work in 2023, HS2 has only carried out essential preparatory work for the Euston Tunnel and brought two vent shaft and head house sites to a safe stop. They’ve confirmed that work to remobilise these sites for tunnelling will now commence.
—
Updated 4:15pm: Added statement from HS2.
£100 million feels like small change for the one-shot opportunity at a link to the East – yes it’s to HS1 but could also be linked to the NLL for freight and other opportunities – and although the single track probably limits it to 1tph each way this could support a through service from Birmingham or beyond to Stratford, Ebbsfleet and Ashford as well as potentially continental destinations.
For comparison, the new station at Brent Cross West cost over £400m.
HS2 isn’t the line for freight. The current line will have some additional capacity for freight as well as space for more commuter services
Joining it to HS1 would mean passport checking etc would have to be in place in Birmingham. Not an insurmountable problem though, Brussels and Amsterdam have managed it in very little space.
Having the tunnel means any doubt about whether Euston WILL be reached has gone, vastly increasing the confidence that investment is worthwhile.
Now to commit to the rest!
(and if it happens really quickly, do we still get the extra trains for the Elizabeth line?)
Extremely dissappointing budget for the railways.
We already knew HS2 would reach Euston, it’s the platform count that matters. Appalling that this (supposed) Labour government are preparing to keep underfunding the railways.
Not sure why you’re surprised, neither party stopped Beeching’s damaging cuts and they haven’t changed that much since. Plus the media keeps criticising this project at every possible opportunity. Euston should be built to the originally planned 11 platforms. Any sensible investor in the station should insist on it. That way future expansion of HS2 is still a possibility. What a lot of people don’t realise is that the trains will be twice as long, so to run Manchester trains on the existing lines means having to run half length trains. So no further increase in capacity. It’s a huge mistake. Manchester shouldn’t even be the terminus either. A straight through underground station makes most sense (Manchester has a huge amount of Underground space)
There is currently a review of the station underway so perhaps wait for that to appear before criticising.
Plus other rail projects and funding allocations for 25/26 were announced today including just shy of £ .5bn for TFL
HS2 should run a single double track tunnel to kings cross then straight down to Waterloo and onto Victoria.
Then people might actually use it from the south. It’s ironic that travelling to the north, you get to London in an hour then spend nearly an hour going from south of the Thames to kings cross/ Euston and having to mess around with the underground with suitcases or get the dreaded Thameslink which takes equally long snaking at a snails pace through the city
Crossrail 2 will achieve most of what you are asking and more. Shame thats been cut also, but I suspect it will be back on the cards in 10 years time…
Yes,simply getting across to Euston from south of the river hasn’t changed much in the past 200 years.A few years ago it took me longer to travel from Waterloo to Kings Cross by bus than from Kings Cross to Gare du Nord.
Sorry to hear that you’re still using horse drawn omnibuses and haven’t discovered the railways, modern buses and taxis that have been built in the past 200 years.
Madness nor to link with HS1 to gain the maximum advantage from modern infrastructure and not insurmountable to have passport control in Birmingham.
With the introduction of biometric border controls, would it beyond the scope of possibility to have them on the train? Then there wouldn’t need to be any modifications to stations and thus starting new routes would be easier
The reference to there being calls to revive the link to HS1 sounds great, but does anyone have a primary source for it?