Michael Gove refuses to confirm HS2 will terminate at Euston or where final London destination will be

Michael Gove has refused to guarantee HS2 will terminate at Euston station and said he did not know where the final London destination would be.

The Levelling-Up Secretary said there was a “debate” about whether the upgraded rail route should end at Euston or Old Oak Common - a west London suburb.

It comes after the government announced earlier this month it will prioritise having initial HS2 services running by 2033 between Old Oak Common and Birmingham Curzon Street as part of measures designed to cut costs.

This means services will not stop in Euston in central London with passengers expected instead to travel for half an hour on the Elizabeth Line.

However, on Channel 4’s The Andrew Neil Show, Gove said he could not confirm that the tracks linking Old Oak Common and Euston station would ever be built.

The senior Conservative on Sunday (26 March) said: “There is a debate about whether or not it should be Old Oak Common or Euston. Old Oak Common is going to be a major area for regeneration but we want to make sure as many people as possible can benefit not just from the additional rail infrastructure but also from the regeneration that HS2 can bring.

“So the Old Oak Common area is a part of north-west London that requires levelling-up.”

Pressed on whether HS2 would go to Euston, the Cabinet minister said: “I don’t know what the final decision will be about where the terminus will be.”

Reports surfaced in January that the Euston element of the high-speed line might never be complete but Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was quick to quash the rumours.

At the time he said he did not see “any conceivable circumstances” in which HS2 would not run to its planned central London terminus at Euston.

Complexities around the Euston site meant high-speed services were already due to temporarily start and end at Old Oak Common.

A “full business case” for HS2 published by the Department of Transport in April 2020 stated that the target timeframe for services launching between Old Oak Common and Birmingham was 2029-2033, whereas trains between Euston and north-west England were 2031-2036.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper’s announced earlier this month the government will prioritise Old Oak Common to Birmingham services. It was interpreted as meaning that the route may not now enter central London until the 2040s.

But Gove’s remarks has now cast doubt on whether the Euston connection will ever go ahead.