Government reportedly set to back high speed rail to Euston

The government is poised to commit to building HS2 to Euston and could bring the state-owned company responsible for delivering the line under direct control, according to newspaper reports.

Plans for a new 10-platform station, which would have been the high-speed line’s London terminus, were shelved under the previous Conservative government as part of broader cuts to the scheme on the back of rising costs.

Former transport secretary Mark Harper announced last March that the station would be redesigned to have just six platforms and that the project would not progress until private funding could be found.

Labour has said it is reviewing the scheme, but has previously indicated that it would also require private funding to move forward with the scheme.

It is unclear whether any such funding has emerged, but The Sunday Times reported over the weekend that the government was now set to approve the scheme in the upcoming autumn budget.

“HS2 just wouldn’t work if the terminus was not at Euston. The station is also well overdue for investment and has become a dystopian mess and a stain on London,” a government source reportedly told the newspaper.

The decision to pull the plug on the Euston scheme meant HS2 had to write off £153m in costs on the scheme.

A joint venture of Mace and Dragados had been building the scheme. Mark Reynolds, chief executive of Mace, called the decision to mothball it “absolutely shameful”.

Other industry leaders have described it as “baffling” and “bonkers”.

Transport secretary Louise Haigh recently told the Evening Standard: “Clearly Euston is going to be part of the wider picture but we will be making a decision soon on the tunnelling and the development. 

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“Nobody would have designed it in the first place to go between Birmingham and Old Oak Common and clearly some wider decisions have to be made in the future both imminently around Euston but also around the terrible situation that [the Conservatives] have left us north of Birmingham, by worsening the capacity issues that already existed.”

As it approaches a decision on the Euston terminus, the government is also reportedly mulling another major change to the project.

Quoting Whitehall and industry figures, the Financial Times has reported that HS2 Ltd could be brought under direct state control.

According to the newspaper, the Department for Transport (DfT) has asked James Stewart, former chair of global infrastructure at advisory firm KPMG, to lead a review into governance and accountability at the state-backed firm.

A DfT spokesperson said: “While we do not comment on speculation, we have been clear before that we will thoroughly review the position we have inherited on HS2, including decisions taken by previous governments,  and will set out next steps in due course.”

In May this year, HS2 Ltd announced it had appointed the former chief of Crossrail as its new chief executive.

Mark Wild’s appointment follows the departure of Mark Thurston, who led HS2 for six-and-a-half years up to the end of September last year.