黑洞社区

Arcadis鈥檚 new chief executive Alan Brookes has joined the rollcall of industry names to query the government鈥檚 decision to mothball the HS2 site at Euston.

Earlier this year, transport secretary Mark Harper said work at Euston and part of the scheme north of Birmingham was being mothballed on cost grounds.

The government has reduced the amount of money the project will get in the current two year funding cycle which runs out in April 2025.

HS2 is hoping work at Euston will start in April 2025 and earlier this month the scheme鈥檚 project director for Euston, Andy Swift, told 黑洞社区 he was aiming towards this date for work to get back up and running fully.

However in an interview with 黑洞社区 to be published next week, Brookes, who was appointed to the top role at Arcadis last month, said he 鈥渄idn鈥檛 understand鈥� the Euston decision in the first place.

Arcadis is working on other parts of the line, including project managing the new station at Birmingham鈥檚 Curzon Street, but Brookes said: 鈥淚 would not start something like that, go as far as you鈥檝e gone and say 鈥榳e鈥檒l leave it at Old Oak Common鈥�. You鈥檝e got to have real access into London. With these big projects, once you鈥檝e made a decision you have to stick with it. We do seem to have this stop-start attitude in this country.鈥�

See also >> 鈥楾he design team has gone from 500 to six.鈥� What HS2 Euston is doing now

Brookes, who is based between London and his Cheshire home when not running Arcadis from its headquarters in Amsterdam, said: 鈥淐oming down to London, why would I get off at Old Oak? What is it actually going to save me? I鈥檒l still go into Euston on the existing line.鈥�

The decision has previously been criticised by the chair of the National Infrastructure Commission John Armitt who told 黑洞社区: 鈥淗aving decided to build it, we should get on and build it. The cheapest way is to build it as quickly as possible.鈥�

Others to query the move have included Alex Vaughan, the chief executive of Costain, which is also working on the scheme just north of the Euston site, who said: 鈥淭he whole purpose of HS2 is to unlock the connectivity from Manchester and the Midlands with Euston and central London.鈥� And Michael Speakman, the chief executive of ground engineer Keller, which is also carrying out work on HS2, said it would be 鈥渟enseless鈥� not to go into Euston.

The Euston site still has around 450 people on it but this will reduce to a couple of hundred in the coming months as work to make it safe is completed.

The number of people working on the job has been slashed by more than 1,000 since Harper鈥檚 announcement in March 鈥� including the design team, made up of Arup, WSP and Grimshaw, which has been cut from 500 to just half a dozen.

Earlier this week, HS2 minister Huw Merriman defended the decision to mothball Euston in his latest update on the scheme to MPs.

He said: 鈥淸Euston] is not affordable at this [current 拢4.8bn] cost, nor in any case, does the government have the financial headroom to proceed with the construction over the next two years.

鈥淲e will, therefore, use the time to look again at the Euston station design to ensure it delivers for passengers, the local community and taxpayers.

鈥淭his will include considering how we might partner with the private sector to capture benefits for customers.

鈥淚t will require careful prioritisation of requirements and a willingness from stakeholders to compromise.鈥�