Euston HS2 back on track say ministers as final tunnelling begins

Ministers have pledged that a redeveloped Euston HS2 station will be big enough to “serve the nation” as tunnelling began for the last miles of high-speed railway into central London.Excavating the 4.5-mile tunnels from Old Oak Common in west London is expected to take between 12 and 18 months – although details of the terminus, and how it will be funded, are yet to be revealed.The first of two 1,600-tonne German-made tunnel boring machines to drive to Euston was switched on at the Old Oak Common station site by the rail minister, Peter Hendy, and Keir Starmer’s chief secretary, Darren Jones.Hendy said the plans for Euston, the costs for which have escalated after designs were twice ripped up under the previous government, were nearing completion.He indicated that the new station would now probably end up with more than the six high-speed platforms previously planned for, to allow additional future HS2 services beyond Birmingham.Hendy said: “The spatial design is virtually agreed between all the parties … [It] will leave space for more because it’s inconceivable that we would build this railway at this level of expense without filling it full of trains to go everywhere in Britain.”He added: “We do want to connect this railway with the rest of the railways in Britain. I would certainly envisage trains leaving Euston for most of Northern England.”Jones said: “One of the key commitments of this Labour government was to get HS2 back on track and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.”Finishing the tunnel, he said, “will open up enormous development opportunities for London which will be great for the broader economy as well”.Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, speaks to the media in London during a ceremony to switch on an HS2 tunnelling machine. Photograph: Yui Mok/PAHe said that during tunnelling the government would continue “talking to potential developers and partners for Euston. It will be a mixture of public and we hope private investment – it will be very focused on affordable housing and job opportunities as well as the commercial investment.”Jones added: “We’ve had a new CEO, a new board is starting – the project has been back on track and that’s why we’ve been committing the funding needed to get this project finished.”Last week HS2 announced the completion of its longest tunnelling project, the 10-mile Chiltern tunnels. Two other sets of tunnels in London, west and east of Northolt, have also been fully excavated.HS2 Ltd’s chief executive, Mark Wild, said the start of tunnelling was “a show of confidence that HS2 will be built into central London and kickstart economic growth”.Wild has been working on a “reset”, a restated works timeline and budget for the project, which is expected to be approved by the government and released in the coming months. He refused to be drawn on dates but confirmed HS2 would now be completed and opened “in the 2030s” after last year telling ministers that the 2033 deadline could not be met.Wild said the key lesson from HS2’s early problems was “not rushing to start”, and doing more preparatory work: “Go slow to go fast.”HS2 trains will run initially only between Birmingham and the new Old Oak Common station in west London. Building to Euston was suspended by Rishi Sunak in 2023 when he axed the second phase of HS2 north of Birmingham to Manchester. Work was put on hold – even though demolition of adjacent tower blocks, businesses and hundreds of homes started almost a decade ago.However, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, gave the go ahead in late 2024 to take HS2 to Euston, which the government says is essential to unlocking the project’s full economic potential. Estimates from Camden council suggest a combination of new homes and commercial development around a rebuilt Euston could add £41bn to the economy by 2053, supporting 34,000 new jobs.