Troubled HS2 may now run to central London, minister says

The HS2 railway line is likely to be extended to London Euston, the transport secretary has signalled.

Louise Haigh said it would make “absolutely no sense” to have the high-speed route terminate at Old Oak Common in west London.

Her comments come after work to expand Euston station to accommodate HS2 was halted by the previous Conservative government last year because of the mounting costs.

Haigh told BBC Radio 5Live a decision on where HS2 will end would be “clear soon”, with an announcement set to be made around the time of the Budget on 30 October.

Currently, the plan to terminate at Old Oak Common would mean passengers travelling to central London would have to change trains.

But Haigh told the BBC on Tuesday: “It would make absolutely no sense to build a £66bn high-speed line between Old Oak Common and Birmingham.”

HS2 was intended to create high-speed rail links between London and major cities in the Midlands and the North of England.

But the project has been thwarted by ballooning costs and problems around its impact on communities.

Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in October last year that extending HS2 from Old Oak Common to Euston, which is much closer to London’s centre, would be reliant on private investment and save £6.5bn of taxpayers’ cash.

Haigh said: “Even under the previous government’s chopped and changed and discredited plans for HS2, Euston was always going to be part of the solution.”

It is unclear how the current Labour government is planning to fund extending HS2 to Euston. The Department for Transport has not responded to further questions from the BBC following Haigh’s comments.

HS2 Ltd representatives also declined to comment.

In February, the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee released a report stating it was “highly sceptical” that the government would be able to attract private investment on “the scale and speed required” to make the extension to Euston a success.

HS2 was originally a Labour commitment, announced back in 2009.

The government’s last estimate of the overall cost for the remaining Birmingham to London stretch is between £45bn and £54bn.

HS2 was originally meant to connect London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.

The new plan is for it to be a high-speed link between Birmingham and London, with a lot of work having already been completed on this section.

The section of the HS2 railway between Parkway and Hampstead Road in Camden is referred to as the Euston Approaches, and it is designed to connect the line to Euston Station. It is currently a building site.

A lot of the largest excavations needed to construct the Euston Approaches tunnels have been paused.

This includes pausing the construction of a concrete box that was intended to be a covered section along the railway line where trains would enter and exit tunnels.

Other work includes tunnelling and creating a wider and deeper railway called the Euston Throat, which would make room for HS2.