Andrew Stephenson says cutting a platform would still allow all the planned services to run
The minister in charge of HS2 has downplayed the potential negative impacts of scaling back plans for the £100bn railway’s London terminus.
HS2 was ordered to take another look at the Grimshaw-designed plans for the station following last year’s review of the project led by Doug Oakervee.
The station is set to be built by a Mace/Dragados joint venture and has a £1.3bn price tag.
Earlier this month, HS2 minister Andrew Stephenson said a scaled back version of the scheme, which would see 10 HS2 platforms, a single-stage build and increased oversite development, was likely to be adopted, sparking uproar among architects who said it would prove a false economy.
The existing plan for the station is to build 11 platforms, a new concourse and connections to local Underground stations.
But Stephenson said cutting back on plans would have little impact on service provision.
He told MPs: “Initial HS2 Ltd analysis indicates that moving to a slightly smaller HS2 station at Euston maintains the station infrastructure capacity to run all of the services in the planned HS2 Phase 2b train service specification.
“The future development of the final HS2 timetable, in due course, will have close regard to optimising resilience and capacity."
Stephenson said a final decision the plans for Euston station are due to be announced later this spring.
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