HS2: Government unclear on Euston station goal, report finds

Computer-generated image of what Euston HS2 station would look like

By Yasmin Rufo

BBC News

The government still does not know what it is trying to achieve with the High Speed 2 (HS2) station at Euston, a parliamentary committee report states.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said this was despite the Department for Transport (DfT) spending over eight years planning and designing it.

In March it was announced that station work had been paused for two years.

The DfT said it remained “committed to delivering HS2 in the most cost-effective way”.

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The PAC report called on the DfT to use the current pause in construction on the project to establish the design and expectations for the station against what it is willing to spend.

It called the original £2.6bn budget “completely unrealistic”, with estimates now suggesting the cost to build the station to be about £4.8bn.

It also said the department must provide greater transparency in its six-monthly updates to Parliament.

Previous updates on cost pressures at Euston did not disclose the risks that construction costs could be significantly higher than expected, the committee said.

Other conclusions and recommendations from the PAC report included:

The department does not yet know the costs and impacts of pausing construction
The department and HM Treasury have not reached a clear understanding about how they would manage high levels of inflation on the HS2 programme
The department’s reports to Parliament on the HS2 Programme did not reflect the significant level of uncertainty in its estimated cost of Euston station
The department has not yet learned lessons from managing major rail programmes

Dame Meg Hillier MP, chair of the committee, said the Euston project was “floundering”.

She said the scheme had caused “major disruption to the local community” and pausing it was “not cost free”, even though it had been done to save money.

“The government must now be clear what it is trying to achieve with this new station, and how it will benefit the public,” she added.

Responding to the report, a DfT spokesperson said: “Earlier this year we made the decision to rephrase the construction of Euston to help balance the nation’s books and work on an affordable design for the station.

“The National Audit Office recently acknowledged this will provide time to put the station design on a more stable footing and we continue to work at pace to ensure the transformational benefits of HS2 are delivered to passengers by better connecting our biggest cities, supporting thousands of jobs and helping grow the economy.

“We note the recommendations made in the committee’s report and will respond to them in due course.”