Waterloo idea a non-starter

Published: 12 May, 2011

• KEN Livingstone’s plans for HS2 display all the hallmarks of political nostrum; they are ill thought out and could easily be rubbished by a political rival (‘Send HS2 to Waterloo,’ pleads Ken, May 5). 

First, Mr Livingstone’s plans would mean an Underground station for HS2 trains at Euston (thus creating a double-deck station), already dismissed by the Department for Transport as prohibitively expensive. 

A second cavernous HS2 station at Waterloo would be at least the same cost as an Underground HS2 Euston. 

Thirdly, the new commuter service would only work if it went north of Euston and south of Waterloo; for example why take the Northern line tube from north London to Euston, then change to take the relatively short distance the rest of the way to Waterloo on this new service? 

Fourthly, the interchange idea at Tottenham Court Road Crossrail is unnecessary; the current HS2 plans will interchange with Crossrail at Old Oak Common. 

Fifthly, the main reason for HS2 is to connect provincial locations to London (Euston) and the continent (best done by the connection at Primrose Hill); there is less of a need for a high-speed railway south of Euston and the capital. 

Finally, Mr Livingstone would probably find he is simply shifting the problem of loss of homes elsewhere because property (possibly including homes) would need to be demolished for the emerging Waterloo tracks somewhere in Lambeth, if he indeed wants to extend HS2 tracks to surface and south of Waterloo. 

ZACHARIAS BOMBASTA
Camden Road, NW1

Room For Homes

• CAMDEN Council continue to bang the “loss of homes at the Regent’s Park estate due to HS2” line like a wailing banshee. 

Last week revealed more Camden councillors in opposition to HS2 because of the homes that will be lost, and their concern over where the residents can be rehoused. 

If the council had shown more flair, determination and flexibility over the years the borough would not be encumbered by its current housing crisis and worried by further loss – the borough is littered with potential housing sites. 

A plot of land has sat vacant on the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Grafton Way, seemingly for decades! 

The Safeways (now Morrisons) development of the mid-1990s in Chalk Farm allowed for an out-of-town format superstore rather than a mixed-use, high-density development (and one questions the need for such a sizeable, accompanying car park in an area served by a nearby tube station and eight bus routes). 

In the borough’s heartlands, the Regis Road business park in Kentish Town and the Gospel Oak “railway triangle” sites offer huge opportunities where the present uses (small business/distribution, and rail engineering respectively) could be “rafted over” and housing built on top.

Pressurise land-owners into action, lift outmoded, rigid, planning laws and the borough won’t be as half worried about displaced residents and lack of homes.

TED ATKINSON
Clipstone Street, W1