HS2 WILL extend to Euston, Transport Sec hints as she admits London station ‘was always part of picture’ for £60bn rail
HS2 WILL make it to Euston station, the Transport Secretary suggested today.
Louise Haigh hinted that after years of back-tracking and indecision, the embattled £60bn rail line will run all the way to central London.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to confirm the move at the October 30 “painful” budget.
Ms Haigh told Times Radio: “Look we’ve said before Euston was always planned to be part of the picture for HS2 and we’re hoping to make an announcement on that very soon.
“But that’s just one of the many examples of the state that we’re picking up from the last Tory government.
“You know they spent over £60bn on making a problem on the West Coast mainline worse than the one they inherited.
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“So we’ve got massive issues to pick up there both at Euston and with the issues that they’ve created north of Birmingham where of course the line was originally meant to.”
Doubts over whether HS2 would make it to Euston were raised last year, when then-PM Rishi Sunak decided to scrap the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the line.
Plans were drawn up for the high-speed train to terminate in West London’s Old Oak Common instead.
From there passengers would have to transfer to the Elizabeth line to complete their journey into central.
Critics immediately slammed the plan, which was aimed at saving costs.
They argued a new rail line that failed to end up in central London was pointless.
Asked this morning whether it was affordable for HS2 to run to Euston, Ms Haigh responded: “We’ll be making an announcement on that soon.
“But it would never have made sense to leave it between Old Oak Common and Birmingham.”