Frank Dobson warns of "devastating" impact of building high speed rail link at Euston
Thursday March 11, 2010
By DAN CARRIER
THE Euston area faces years of building work with six estates and one park threatened with demolition after the government announced today that the station in the south of Camden would be the terminus for a new high speed rail network snaking up to Scotland.
Transport secretary Lord Andrew Adonis unveiled the plans in Parliament as a central plank of a government project to build the next generation of train lines.
Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson quizzed Transport Secretary MP Sadiq Khan in the House of Commons on what the scheme would mean for the borough.
Mr Dobson said: “It would have a devastating effect on my constituency. The engineers have designed this as if it were a green field site – and green field it most certainly is not. Six or seven blocks of affordable housing will have to be demolished, and a park concreted over. The engineers need to go back to their computers and work out how they can use the Euston area better.”
And further disruption could be caused by another aspect of the project – engineers are due to consider how Euston could some how be linked by rail to King's Cross and St Pancras, allowing the super-fast, 215 miles per hour trains to shoot through south Camden and join the track dubbed High Speed One that takes trains to the continent.
Mr Khan replied that the benefits would outweigh the hassle caused by another major transport building project - with St Pancras's channel tunnel link only being completed three years ago - and that Euston was by far the best choice.