Euston Approaches

We will build three underground tunnels in the Euston Approaches. They will pass underneath the existing railway and parts of Parkway, Mornington Street and Park Village East roads and emerge into a ‘concrete box’ just south of Mornington Street Bridge.

We won’t use a tunnel-boring machine to construct the three tunnels in the Euston Approaches, instead we will excavate the tunnels and spray them with a concrete lining. Tunnel boring machines will be used to construct the two Euston Tunnels that will arrive at the Euston Approaches beneath Parkway junction. We will dismantle the tunnel boring machines and remove them in pieces by lorry when the tunnelling is finished.

Our tunnelling excavations include a large underground cavern, where we will dismantle the tunnel boring machines. This will be where one of the tunnels will split in two – making three overall – two tunnels for trains coming into Euston, and one for trains heading out of Euston. Combined with the way that the tracks will fan out above ground between the Euston Approaches and Euston Station, this will enable trains to access and exit multiple platforms at the station.

For more information on tunnelling in Euston, please see our FAQs.

The concrete box will be built partly above, partly below ground between Mornington Street Bridge and Granby Terrace Bridge. The concrete box is a covered section of the railway cutting where the trains will enter and exit the tunnels. The trains travelling from the north will pass through the concrete box into an open-air railway cutting south of Granby Terrace Bridge.

The northern end of the concrete box, where it connects to the three tunnels, is known as the ‘Euston Portal’. We will build a headhouse (Euston Portal Headhouse) above this portal to provide access from the street to the tracks for maintenance and emergencies.

We will build two headhouses to provide access from the street level down to the tunnels / concrete box for maintenance and emergency access or escape.

The Euston Cavern Headhouse will be located within the railway cutting at the northern end of Park Village East.

The Euston Portal Headhouse will be built just south of Mornington Street Bridge at the northern end of the concrete box.

The Euston Throat will create a wider, deeper railway cutting in front of Regent’s Park Estate to make way for the new HS2 railway. This section of the railway will be open-air with parallel retaining walls between Granby Terrace and Hampstead Road bridges to separate HS2 from the Network Rail tracks.

We will extend Granby Terrace and Hampstead Road bridges over the new railway by adding a new section to the end of each bridge.

Granby Terrace Bridge will extend from Hampstead Road to Stanhope Street, while Hampstead Road Bridge will extend to Robert Street, past Cartmel and Lindale. These bridge extensions require utilities to be diverted to avoid disrupting services.

In line with Government direction, work to construct the HS2 station at Euston was paused on 9 March 2023 due to inflationary pressure and the need to find a more affordable design. A copy of the Transport Secretary’s statement is available online here.

On 4 October 2023, the Government announced that it would be redirecting funding from HS2 to other transport projects around the country but restated its commitment to completing Phase 1 of HS2 between Birmingham and London, with a rescoped Euston station. The Government will appoint a development company, separate from HS2 Ltd, to manage the delivery of Euston Station and the wider development.

Whilst options for the delivery of Euston are explored, HS2 Ltd continues to complete enabling works across the HS2 site and other activities to make the sites safe while the main construction work is paused.