The station which Osborne want and saw in HK recently

Last friday front page headline in the Evening Standard suggested that George Osborne wants a grandeur vision for Euston terminus then the current cheapskate HS2 plan for Euston after a visit to Kowloon station in Hong Kong.

Given the enormous damage to hundreds of homes in Camden; local jobs in Drummond Street: and loss of parks & open space particularly in the immediate West Euston neighbourhood, its not surprising some have suggested that the new terminus be built within the existing footprint of the station through a double deck down option. Now that would certainly be progress if his grandeur vision involved this, so the real question would be does let’s rebuild Euston mean double deck or not? 

Interestingly what George Osborne saw was how many Chinese high speed rail integrated transport hubs in China have multi-levels, including Kowloon, Beijing South and Guangzhou, which were funnily enough all built using British architects. For them double deck or even triple deck is usually not the answer but four or five decks!

So lets see if new Chair of HS2 David Higgins under his cost review is open to such ideas.