NotATrainspott
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From the Camden New Journal:
http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2014/may/manhattan-style-housing-scheme-planned-hs2-redevelopment-euston
In effect it looks like the Euston Area Plan idea is what will end up being built, with the entirety of the Euston station and throat covered in parks and development akin to the Hudson Yards development in Manhattan. As a result there would be a net reduction in the land used by the station compared to today, albeit requiring demolition of everything that is there right now.
I had always been very surprised that there hadn't been consideration of development on top of the throat seeing as how at the moment the current one is effectively a massive industrial scar through Camden. With the current property market in London I would be surprised if this kind of over-site development didn't happen everywhere and anywhere there are active railway lands. Even if it were not possible to cover them over with skyscrapers it would still be a positive step to cover them in public parks and public transportation/cycling corridors. The LGV Atlantique stays in a cut-and-cover tunnel through the Parisian suburbs with a long stretch of green parkland on top, so it wouldn't be an entirely original concept.
http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2014/may/manhattan-style-housing-scheme-planned-hs2-redevelopment-euston
Manhattan-style housing scheme planned with HS2 redevelopment of Euston
The draft plans for a development which would run from Euston to Parkway in Camden Town
Published: 12 May, 2014
By TOM FOOT
RAIL bosses are touting a huge Manhattan-style housing development at Euston Station with housing snaking all the way to the top of Parkway in Camden Town.
A first glimpse of early plans put forward by Network Rail and HS2 show how housing would sit above the current railway tracks sandwiched between Park Village East and Mornington Terrace.
The buildings above the station are reserved for “commercial” and “mixed use” development in the draft plans.
The “work in progress” slides reveal a new “Level Deck” design for Euston triggered by recommendations made by HS2’s new chief executive David Higgins.
HS2 Euston Action Group chairman Robert Latham said: “Higgins is proposing more than a parade of houses along ‘Camden Cutting’, it is a gross overdevelopment. His vision seems to me: offices, shopping mall and housing for foreign investors above the station. Any social housing will be shunted down the line.”
The recent suggestion of building homes up the railway line to Parkway surprised council chiefs when it was presented to the Euston Station Alternatives Working Group.
“I hadn’t seen that before,” said council leader Cllr Sarah Hayward. “It would be very expensive to build on decking like that – and who would pay for that? It’s a complex piece of engineering.”
The working group is made up of senior representatives of the council, the Greater London Authority and Network Rail, the limited company which owns the vast majority of Euston Station. Sir David, the former chief executive of Network Rail, proposed a major development of Euston Station shortly after taking over the reigns as chief executive of HS2 in March.
The “Level Deck” plan is vastly different to the proposal for Euston in the HS2 hybrid Bill, which was debated by MPs last week, and is being reviewed by a Parliamentary Committee.
The HS2 presentation says the total land up for grabs is worth £1.4billion, adding: “These slides represent the beginning of the work, not the end. They are intended to be indicative of the sort of massing that might be required to deliver significant additional value.”
Meanwhile, engineering experts working on the “Double Deck Down 2” alternative for Euston Station say their scheme is finally being taken seriously by Network Rail.
Engineer Jeff Travers said that officials had told the Euston Station Alternatives Working Group that his DDD2 “could be made to work”.
He said: “DDD2 would not require the demolition of homes on the Regent’s Park estate, and would use the existing railway for construction transport instead of HGVs.
“It would also require only half the excavation needed for HS2’s Level Deck design.”
In effect it looks like the Euston Area Plan idea is what will end up being built, with the entirety of the Euston station and throat covered in parks and development akin to the Hudson Yards development in Manhattan. As a result there would be a net reduction in the land used by the station compared to today, albeit requiring demolition of everything that is there right now.
I had always been very surprised that there hadn't been consideration of development on top of the throat seeing as how at the moment the current one is effectively a massive industrial scar through Camden. With the current property market in London I would be surprised if this kind of over-site development didn't happen everywhere and anywhere there are active railway lands. Even if it were not possible to cover them over with skyscrapers it would still be a positive step to cover them in public parks and public transportation/cycling corridors. The LGV Atlantique stays in a cut-and-cover tunnel through the Parisian suburbs with a long stretch of green parkland on top, so it wouldn't be an entirely original concept.
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