When the Government announced it would pause work on High Speed 2’s Phase 2a and Euston station, the consensus was that it was a bizarre (to use one of the more polite terms) decision. Publication of the National Audit Office’s report on cost increases at Euston, however, shines a very different light on things.
Firstly, £4.8 billion is an extraordinary amount to spend on a railway station. Around one-quarter of the cost of the Elizabeth Line, and only £1 billion less than that of building High Speed 1 in full – although that does not consider inflation.
A combination of factors seem to be to blame for this vast cost. Certainly, inflation of construction costs, which is even higher than we are experiencing in the shops, hasn’t helped. Added to that are the need to tie works in with Network Rail’s current…
