Euston Express and Euston Cross revisited

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter September 2025

With the HS2 tunnelling stopped at Old Oak Common, is now the time to revisit two proposals from over a decade ago, “Euston Express” and “Euston Cross “, which were designed to be complementary in the longer term?

The ingenious Euston Express scheme proposed to save both money and time on how HS2 reaches Euston by tunnelling only the two miles from Old Oak Common to east of the Bakerloo line portals at Queen’s Park (instead of the 4.5 miles to Euston) and repurposing the existing six tracks from there: HS2 trans would take over the  Intercity tracks to reach Euston, while Intercity trains would take over the Outer Suburban tracks, and the DC tracks would be shared by London Overground and remaining  Outer Suburban trains. https://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/euston-express-hs2-alternative-would-save-37bn-lords-told

On the other hand, the very costly ”Euston Cross” scheme, for the longer term, proposed new deep-level tunnels from a junction with HS2 (somewhere between Old Oak Common and Queen’s Park) to a junction with HS1 (somewhere between St Pancras International and Stratford International) incorporating a deep-level station under the northern ends of the following National Rail stations: Euston, St Pancras International and King’s Cross (hence the name of the scheme).  https://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/peers-to-meet-hs2-officials-to-discuss-alternative-euston-cross-plan 

However, I see no mention whatsoever in that long article of interchange between the proposed deep level “Euston Cross” station and TfL services, suggesting passengers going to/from elsewhere in London are disregarded!

If the “Euston Express” scheme is implemented, it must be far cheaper (compared with Euston Cross) to link HS2 with HS1 via Primrose Hill and the North London Line: through trains between HS2 and Kent could reasonably call at both Old Oak Common and Stratford International. Capacity on the North London Line could be increased by recommissioning the two disused tracks running from Camden Road eastwards. Given that both HS2 and HS1 are built to European gauge, the short link would ideally become European gauge in the longer term and then facilitate the through operation of double-deck trains, etc. 

The Euston Express scheme could be slightly modified east of Queen’s Park, to connect HS2 more directly with Primrose Hill and HS1, as well as with Euston.          

Neil Roth