HS2: High-speed rail line will end at London Euston, transport secretary Louise Haigh indicates
The transport secretary has indicated that HS2 will run into central London, saying it “would never have made sense” for that not to happen, following months of speculation over the rail line.
The government will make a final announcement around the time of the budget, Louise Haigh suggested.
Asked if it would be affordable to get HS2 to terminate at Euston, she said: “We will be making an announcement on that soon.
“But it certainly would never have made sense to leave it between Old Oak Common and Birmingham.”
Asked if the announcement may come on October 30, the date of the Budget, she told Times Radio: “It may be made around those decisions.”
But the Conservative Party said the numbers “just are not adding up”, urging Labour to think carefully about how they will raise the money to fund the project.
Shadow education secretary Damian Hinds said: “It is really important that we get transport infrastructure right, clearly. But clearly that also has to be weighed against cost.
“And one thing we know about this Labour government in its rather chaotic early days is that the numbers just are not adding up.
“And clearly they are going to have to think very, very long and hard about what they can spend on and indeed how they’re going to raise money.”
It comes just one year after then-prime minister Rishi Sunak announced that extending HS2 from Old Oak Common, in the suburbs of west London, to Euston, near the centre of the capital, was reliant on private investment.
The cut back to the high speed rail project – which has been veiled in uncertainty for nearly four years – was aimed at saving £6.5 billion of taxpayers’ money.
The National Audit Office previously warned that a decision on whether to extend the network to Euston was needed by summer 2024 to “avoid much higher costs in the future”.
In February, the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee issued a report saying it was “highly sceptical” that the Department for Transport would be able to attract private investment on “the scale and speed required” to make extending the rail line to Euston “a success”.
Mr Sunak also cancelled a plan to extend HS2 between the West Midlands and Manchester amid spiralling costs, a move aimed at saving £36 billion.