Whilst Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood trawls through the mess that is HS2 deciding what can be done to save the project, following the pointers we gave him, he has had another from the man who had his job when Tony Blair was PM, Lord Turnbull.
Writing to the DfT, Turnbull has only one point to make, that HS2 should be scaled down as the current plans would lead to a quite unacceptable level of disruption and damage for residents affected by construction.
However, before everyone everywhere gets excited, Turnbull is solely talking about the place set to get the longest period of disruption, Camden. Turnbull joins the growing masses in the Lords concerned about the HS2 plans for Euston, and says the current plans should be put on hold, despite reports that Sir Jeremy is looking at scrapping this part of HS2 altogether. For now, the best plan he says is for trains to terminate at Old Oak Common whilst a new plan for Euston can be developed, saying:
“This would give time for the design problems at Euston to be sorted out and would make the construction work at Euston, once a better plan has been agreed, easier to undertake.”