LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s transport minister said the long-delayed HS2 railway will likely run all the way to central London, following speculation around the future of the multi-billion-pound project after it was scaled back last year.
The Labour government said soon after it was elected in July it would review plans for an HS2 terminus at Euston in central London, raising the prospect that the line might only be built as far as Old Oak Common in west London to save on costs.
Transport minister Louise Haigh said on Tuesday that Euston was always planned to be part of the picture for HS2, which will connect London and Birmingham.
“We’ll be making an announcement on that soon … it certainly doesn’t make – it would never have made sense – to leave it between Old Oak Common and Birmingham,” Haigh told Times Radio.
HS2’s northern leg between Birmingham and Manchester was cancelled by the previous Conservative government last year with former prime minister Rishi Sunak blaming the spiralling budget after costs soared beyond 100 billion pounds ($130.9 billion).
A new HS2 hub at Old Oak Common is being built, but trains terminating here rather than at Euston would inconvenience passengers, business leaders have said.
HS2 was originally designed to connect the British capital with the major cities in central and northern England. It was meant to add capacity to the rail network, cut travel times and help Britain catch up with other European nations that operate well-connected high-speed rail networks.
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(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar)
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