Old Oak Common and HS2: The Elephant in the Room

Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

After Rishi Sunak's scrapping of its Northern leg, the white elephant of HS2 has progressed into its next stage: developing what will be the largest UK rail station in Old Oak Common, Ealing.

Excavators are now removing tonnes of London clay from the huge construction site, which will eventually house a six-platform mega station linking Birmingham Curzon Street to Old Oak Common in West London.

The site is expected to bring in some 250 000 passengers daily to and from the capital, linking the Midlands to London and then joining up with the Elizabeth line, the Heathrow Express and Great Western to further connect Britain.

It is thought that over 25 000 homes could be built and 65 000 jobs created by the Old Oak Common scheme, which has plans to finish and be ready for railway action in the 2030s.

Old Oak Common, in its quieter, suburban setting within London, has been touted as potentially becoming the new urban financial hub of the city, with the original plan of connecting HS2 to Euston now in jeopardy. Whilst there is scope for a large-scale expansion of the Old Oak area in what is an increasingly town-sized project, there has been immense disappointment at the lack of any conscious effort to link the site to Euston.

The HS2 project, which was originally projected to cost £37.5 billion for the Birmingham to London line, has now reached £57 billion and will likely cost upwards of £120 billion, becoming yet another white elephant.

Worse still, the looming doubts over its connection to Euston could render the original goal of the major project - to link the North to the city centre - unfulfilled.

The delays, scraps and costs of HS2 continue to embarrass the UK and fail the public it promises to support, leaving too many elephants in the room that have yet to be addressed.