The delay to HS2 work at Euston shows ministers do not know what they are “trying to achieve” with the “floundering” station, MPs have warned.
Ministers have been told to “finally establish” what their plans are for the central London station after the government paused work due to rising costs.
HS2 is a central part of the government’s levelling up agenda, designed to improve rail connections between cities in the Midlands and the North with London.
Under the HS2 map, Euston is supposed to provide the final leg in the south after linking up to Old Oak Common in the suburbs of northwest London.
However, doubt was cast over the future of the station after Transport Secretary Mark Harper told MPs that work at Euston would be paused for two years because costs had risen to £4.8bn compared with an initial budget of £2.6bn – which MPs on the Public Accounts Committee described as ” wildly unrealistic”.
Since construction began there six years ago, hundreds of homes and businesses have been demolished – but now the huge building site is virtually empty.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has said it will use the two-year period to determine its priorities and minimum requirements for the station.
“Despite spending over eight years on planning and designing the HS2 Euston station, the department still does not know what it is trying to achieve with the station,” the MPs said.
And Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the committee, said the HS2 Euston project was “floundering”.
“This is a multibillion-pound scheme – which has already caused major disruption to the local community – put on pause.
“The pause, ostensibly to save money, is not cost free. Mothballing and possible compensation for businesses which have lost work will all need to be added to the HS2 tally.
“The government must now be clear what it is trying to achieve with this new station, and how it will benefit the public.
“Our report finds that a wildly unrealistic budget for HS2 Euston was set in 2020 in the expectation that it would be revised.
“The government must demonstrate that it is not just repeating the same mistakes of unrealistic costings.”
The question marks over Euston accompany wider delays to the HS2 project, which was initially set to link London and the West Midlands with a further phase extending to cities in the North.
The report comes after Sky News obtained a leaked government briefing which said the delays to “balance the books” were in fact likely to cost the taxpayer at least £366m.
The leaked document also predicted the two-year pause to construction work on a key section is actually set to last 3.5 years – because of the additional time needed to ramp up the work.
The DfT confirmed in March that work on the crucial leg between Birmingham and Crewe – which is then due to continue to Manchester – would have to be put on hold because of the impact of inflation.
The first part was due for extension between 2030 and 2034 to help boost transport in the north of England, but the window has now shifted to 2032 to 2036 while services will not extend to Manchester until the 2040s.
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Delivery of the high-speed railway has been a core pledge of the Conservative government but it has been plagued by delays and ever-increasing costs – from estimates of about £33bn in 2010 to £55.7bn for the whole project in 2015.
By 2019, the estimated cost had soared to at least £71bn, excluding the final eastern leg from the West Midlands to the East Midlands.
A DfT spokeswoman said: “We remain committed to delivering HS2 from Euston to Manchester in the most cost-effective way for taxpayers, which is why earlier this year we made the decision to rephase 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.”