HS2 has unveiled revised plans for its London terminus at Euston, prolonging construction by seven years and incorporating a bright yellow roof over its high-speed rail platforms.

The £2.25bn development at the station will now be completed in 2033 rather than 2026, built in two stages to limit disruption to passengers on the traditional network. Work is due to begin in 2017.

HS2 bosses said the proposals, which must be approved by parliament, were flexible enough to allow redevelopment of the type that has been done around London St Pancras, the terminus for HS1.



Although the chancellor, George Osborne, and David Higgins, HS2’s chair, have pledged something more ambitious for Euston, the proposals so far only cover HS2’s infrastructure rather than an anticipated wider redevelopment plan for Euston station and the surrounding area.

Network Rail has yet to spell out how it will redevelop the existing station, and the arguments over what will be built above or alongside to replace demolished homes and shops will not be settled for years.



The revised blueprint does not alter the proposed destruction of homes and businesses to the west of the existing station, where the first six HS2 platforms will be built ready for service in 2026. A further five will replace platforms within the existing station by 2033.



The new Euston station design. Photograph: Grimshaw Architects/PA

Rupert Walker, the Euston development director for HS2 and Network Rail, said the original plans did not make the most of redevelopment opportunities and meant “disruption to passengers would have been a real issue”.

He said planners had “redesigned from the bottom up, and reviewed every single requirement for the needs of HS2, rail passengers and the community”, adding: “Euston needs to become a station that both the nation and local community can be proud of – and share.”

But Camden council, whose residents will suffer the greatest disruption during the construction, criticised the revised plans. “The council feels serious questions have been left unanswered on how major transport projects, such as Crossrail 2, will integrate with the station, and worries Camden will lose out as the full opportunity for local jobs and affordable homes on the site will not be realised as there is no commitment to comprehensive development of the station.”



Walker confirmed that the plans finally ruled out any possible link between HS2 and HS1, the high-speed train line to Paris which starts at nearby St Pancras. A mooted travelator appears off the cards for now: instead, Walker said the new station layout, merging with Euston Square underground station, would allow passengers with heavy luggage to take the Circle line for one stop to change to trains to Europe.

The transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said the plans were “the first steps towards creating a station in Euston of which the both the local community and national passengers can be proud”.

But there are fears within the industry that the promised wider development of Euston may not materialise, and Network Rail will have to design any eventual station rebuild around HS2’s bolt-on terminus.

Labour’s shadow rail minister, Lilian Greenwood, said: “When you look at the comments George Osborne made last year, the reality doesn’t match up. As we’ve seen with the ‘northern powerhouse’, there’s a gap between the rhetoric and the reality.”