News

HS2: Khan back-tracks on Euston as Phase 1 tenders invited

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has told the London Assembly that HS2 Ltd agrees with his view that plans for Euston must change, but acknowledged that Euston will be the best London terminus for the new high speed line. Last month, in response to questions put to him on London radio, Khan said he was seeking a fundamental rethink on plans for Euston due to the likely disruption for local residents. The planned station at Old Oak Common would make a better temporary terminus for Phase 1 of HS2, Khan said during the radio phone-in show.

The Mayor has now met with HS2 chairman David Higgins to discuss the Euston plans. "David Higgins agreed with me that HS2 needs to amend the plans for Euston," Khan told a London Assembly plenary committee last week. However, he also acknowledged that terminating HS2 trains from Birminham at Old Oak Common would exceed the capacity of Crossrail (the Elizabeth Line) as soon as Phase 1 of HS2 opens.

A HS2 spokesman said: "It was a very positive meeting with the Mayor. The current plans for building the HS2 extension to Euston will be reviewed, but very much on how the works will be carried out, not reviewing if HS2 will terminate at Euston from the opening of the line in 2026. The Euston work will remain fundamentally a three phase project."

Under the current plans included in the HS2 hybrid bill, which is now being read in the House of Lords, six new platforms for HS2 trains will be built at Euston, partly on the existing station footprint and partly extending the station to the west, in time for the opening of Phase 1 in 2026. A further five platforms will be built for Phase 2, opening in 2033, before the existing station can be redeveloped by Network Rail.

HS2 Ltd is understood to be reviewing how the Phase 1 work at Euston can be remodelled to reduce disruption for local residents due to fears over the amount of noise and disruption from works traffic, plus local concerns over loss of green spaces in the area for the duration of the project up to 2033.

HS2 Ltd has also confirmed that last week it issued invites to tender for the main Phase 1 civils contracts to all nine consortia shortlisted earlier this year. Contracts being tendered this year, expected to be awarded to start in spring 2017 are as follows:

·        Lot S1 – ‘Euston Tunnels and Approaches’ (£600m - £900m)

·        Lot S2 – ‘Northolt Tunnels’ (£850m – £1.4bn)

·        Lot C1 – ‘Chiltern Tunnels and Colne Valley Viaduct’ (£800m – £1.3bn)

·        Lot C2 – ‘North Portal Chiltern Tunnels to Brackley’ (£800m – £1.3bn)

·        Lot C3 – ‘Brackley to Long Itchington Wood Green Tunnel South Portal’ (£600m – £900m)

·        Lot N1 – ‘Long Itchington Wood Green Tunnel to Delta Junction / Birmingham Spur’ (£900m – £1.5bn)

·        Lot N2 – ‘Delta Junction to West Coast Main Line Tie-in’ (£800m – £1.3bn)

The nine bidding consortia and the lots they're shortlisted for are:

Align Joint Venture – Bouygues Travaux Publics, VolkerFitzpatrick, Sir Robert McAlpine: Lots S2, C1, C2 and C3

ASL – Acciona Infraestructuras, John Sisk & Son,  Lagan Construction Group: Lot C3

Balfour Beatty VINCI BeMo (BBV) – Balfour Beatty, VINCI, BeMo Tunnelling GmbH: Lots C1, C2, N1 and N2

Catalyst – Bechtel Limited: Lot C3

Carillion-Eiffage-Kier (CEK) Joint Venture – Carillion, Eiffage Genie Civil, Kier: Lots S1, S2, C2 and C3

Fusion – Morgan Sindall, BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman (UK) Limited: Lots S1, S2, N1 and N2

LFM – Laing O’Rourke, FCC Construccion, J. Murphy & Sons: Lots C1, N1 and N2

Momentum Infrastructure – Dragados, Hochtief, Galliford Try: Lots S1, C2, C3 and N2

SCS – Skanska, Costain, STRABAG: Lots S1, S2, C1 and N1

Comments

Must all trains using HS2 track terminate at Euston? Could some split at Old Oak Common into half length trains and use Crossrail through Central London & Abbeywood to HS1 at Ebbsfleet? And ultimately might track be built by the western M25 to link HS2 to the Western Rail Access to Heathrow & onwards on Crossrail (perhaps to HS1 at Ebbsfleet)? After all, as Thameslink has shown, passing through London can be more useful than terminating in it.
A terminus at Old Oak Common, even on a temporary basis, is asking for serious trouble. The entire connectivity of the HS2 route will be relying on the efficient operation of the Great Western approaches to Paddington at the most congested location, the interface with Crossrail. Even with the GWML modernisation complete, one signalling failure or a fatality (neither of which are uncommon) will potentially bring the whole north-south HS2 route to a halt, and how would Old Oak cope with the numbers of passengers who would be piling up in the station until the problem was rectified? Better to delay opening the phase 1 route until the London terminus is complete than this half-measure.