How to improve Euston station

[DynamicSpirit]

Enthusiasts don't like stations that are like airports because it's hard to watch trains, but in reality making Euston *more* like an airport would probably improve it immeasurably.

And it's not like it's particularly possible to watch the trains at Euston at the moment anyway Rebuilding it airport style with a huge departure lounge/concourse above the platforms would make no difference in that regard - but as you say would make getting to trains far more comfortable for most passengers.

 

[AndrewE]

And it's not like it's particularly possible to watch the trains at Euston at the moment anyway Rebuilding it airport style with a huge departure lounge/concourse above the platforms would make no difference in that regard - but as you say would make getting to trains far more comfortable for most passengers.

You could have a glazed country end overlooking the station throat, even more like an airport terminal... I would never have imagined that I might like a railway facility to become more like an airport!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Total reconstruction is the most expensive and disruptive option, but probably provides the greatest capacity. And London could always do with more modern terminus capacity, even if it primarily allows rationalisation elsewhere.

The problem with total reconstruction is that means you have potentially a couple of years with no Euston station at all while it's being demolished and rebuilt, whereas solutions involving modifying the existing station merely give reduced capacity while the works are ongoing.

We could probably cope with reduced capacity for a couple of years, but I don't think we could cope without the station

 

[HSTEd]

The problem with total reconstruction is that means you have potentially a couple of years with no Euston station at all while it's being demolished and rebuilt, whereas solutions involving modifying the existing station merely give reduced capacity while the works are ongoing.

We could probably cope with reduced capacity for a couple of years, but I don't think we could cope without the station

We could close platforms in sequence to install crash decks and a temporary overhead conductor rail system. Once that is done to all platforms we can demolish everything over the tops of the platforms without shutting down the station.
Once the platforms are in open air we can rearrange the layout as we please without the necessity of closing the station entirely. We could also open temporary platforms on the area cleared for HS2.

It would be tedious in the extreme however.
It almost makes me wonder how long it would take to demolish the station roof with explosives and clear the rubble enough to restart service. Temporary platforms on the HS2 site are probably far more practical!

In any case attempting modifcation of the station will likely take far more than just a couple of years if we want to do anything substantial - which we clearly need to do.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It almost makes me wonder how long it would take to demolish the station roof with explosives and clear the rubble enough to restart service. Temporary platforms on the HS2 site are probably far more practical!

If it was to be fully rebuilt, I'm inclined to agree with this - build a temporary station on the HS2 site (just open platforms and temporary buildings) and then rebuild the original. You could reduce platform requirements by messing with the timetable, e.g. diverting the DC line to Stratford temporarily (unpopular I know, but it'd save 1.5 platforms ish) and running WMT peak services as 12-car instead of some of the peak extras.

Depending on the structural design of the parcels deck, and assuming that had to be removed and couldn't be re-used*, it might be possible to keep say half of it in use.

* I believe "New New St" was in part built by repurposing a multi storey car park, though I forget which bit is which.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

If it was to be fully rebuilt, I'm inclined to agree with this - build a temporary station on the HS2 site (just open platforms and temporary buildings) and then rebuild the original. You could reduce platform requirements by messing with the timetable, e.g. diverting the DC line to Stratford temporarily (unpopular I know, but it'd save 1.5 platforms ish) and running WMT peak services as 12-car instead of some of the peak extras.

Depending on the structural design of the parcels deck, and assuming that had to be removed and couldn't be re-used*, it might be possible to keep say half of it in use.

This is exactly what I've been wondering for a while - but you wouldn't even need to reduce the timetable if you did it six platforms at a time; you would still need to remove everything above it first though which means the question of the way the parcels deck was built becomes critical to any such plan.

It certainly should be a big part of the debate, and there's really only a narrow window of time in which this could be done between now and HS2 opening.

 

[HSTEd]

If it was to be fully rebuilt, I'm inclined to agree with this - build a temporary station on the HS2 site (just open platforms and temporary buildings) and then rebuild the original. You could reduce platform requirements by messing with the timetable, e.g. diverting the DC line to Stratford temporarily (unpopular I know, but it'd save 1.5 platforms ish) and running WMT peak services as 12-car instead of some of the peak extras.

Depending on the structural design of the parcels deck, and assuming that had to be removed and couldn't be re-used*, it might be possible to keep say half of it in use.

* I believe "New New St" was in part built by repurposing a multi storey car park, though I forget which bit is which.

If we can get to the point where all the platform areas are open air, we can arbitrarily rearrange the station without the need to close it, skewing temporary platforms around as required.
I worry that if we try to build a complete station on the HS2 side we will end up with two badly engineered stations mashed together and that will cripple us for a century.

So all in all I agree, although I am very skeptical the parcel deck is of any real use to us.

 

[The Planner]

This is exactly what I've been wondering for a while - but you wouldn't even need to reduce the timetable if you did it six platforms at a time; you would still need to remove everything above it first though which means the question of the way the parcels deck was built becomes critical to any such plan.

Did what 6 platforms at a time? You would need to rebuild the throat to enable anything like that to happen.

It certainly should be a big part of the debate, and there's really only a narrow window of time in which this could be done between now and HS2 opening.

No window at all to do it.

 

[GJMarshy]

Given the time it takes ro get any scheme designed, consulted on, approved and built, I'd suggest pre-HS2 we need to focus on the most simple, relatively straightforward solutions which could be delivered within 5 years, ideally 2 or 3 given the state of the station today.

A few options that could be looked into:

An arrivals exit for platforms 1-3 onto Evesholt Street by re-purposing the existing maintenance entrance. Given these platforms are almost exclusively used by Avanti, that's not an insignificant number of arriving passengers who can be moved away from the main concourse. A small section of Evesholt Street itself would need some pedestrianisation & way finding improvements to guide passengers to the forecourt/tube, but nothing that interferes structurally with the existing station.

Removal of all retail/hospitality units close to the platforms, creating additional circulation space, removing contra-flow of people boarding/arriving from platforms against shop-goers.

Add a canopy to the station forecourt, which is heavily used in the summer months as an additional waiting area taking some pressure off the main concourse. A canopy would shelter it from the elements (wind/rain) making it more suitable for year-round usage.

Make Overground access via the tube concourse only. There's already an entrance to the tube platforms from the Overground bays. With some directional arrows (Green/Red floor markers) it should be possible to guide people through the Tube concourse in both directions. Most use the tube for onward connections anyway, so relatively few would need to access the forecourt via the tube entrance there.

Re-purpose the booking office as an Avanti customer only waiting room with seating and departure boards. With Avanti passengers generally getting to the station much earlier than people using other TOCs due to frequencies, it makes sense to create a waiting area exclusively for them. Simply show your ticket/QR code to get in. It'd keep the concourse free for more transitory movements, rather than having huge swathes of people stood in position in front of the departure boards for up to half an hour.

Improve the Avanti App to show real-time platform data to match that of RealTimeTrains. This should ensure more people get to the train earlier who have the app, those who don't will be a little later, but as everyone isn't moving at once, it more evenly distributes flows toward the platforms. Eg. Elderly Users may not have the app, and they're the ones who generally need a safer-passage to the platforms. If the younger crowd have already made their way to the train according to the app (which would likely be ahead of the departure boards) it gives elderly people a clearer route to the platforms once the bulk of passengers have already moved.

Just my thoughts on things that could be achieved relatively quickly with minimal infrastructure changes/additions. It's no long-term fix. That'll come with the HS2 station. Even if work started now to re-configure the station significantly, it'd still likely not be complete until the mid-late 2030s anyway, so it may be considered throwing good money, time and disruption after bad!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

For suggestions that involve separating arrivals and departures: While that might not in itself be a bad thing, remember that some people will be arriving expecting to meet friends etc. in the concourse - particularly people who don't know their way around London. So some provision will need to be made for that.

 

[A S Leib]

With Avanti passengers generally getting to the station much earlier than people using other TOCs due to frequencies, it makes sense to create a waiting area exclusively for them.

I agree with the first bit, but there's ~9 Avanti tph for most of the day against 7 tph for LNR and 4 tph for the Overground, so I wouldn't be surprised if the number of Avanti passengers is large enough that that would be impractical.

 

[HSTEd]

For suggestions that involve separating arrivals and departures: While that might not in itself be a bad thing, remember that some people will be arriving expecting to meet friends etc. in the concourse - particularly people who don't know their way around London. So some provision will need to be made for that.

Well if we use the top deck solution discussed earlier, they would likely meet them beyond the barriers at the ends of the platforms.

There is much less need for extensive circulating space in exit structures since the vast majority of people will be proceeding directly to their destination.

As a terminus, Euston has the advantage that not many people will need to return to the departures area from the platform, since comparatively few people will be changing trains.

 

[GJMarshy]

I agree with the first bit, but there's ~9 Avanti tph for most of the day against 7 tph for LNR and 4 tph for the Overground, so I wouldn't be surprised if the number of Avanti passengers is large enough that that would be impractical.

This is true! However Avanti trains carry c.500-600 people, most of whom arrive up to half an hour before their train, which contrasts against LNR and the Overground especially. Giving them a separate waiting area may therefore free up a lot of space on the concourse otherwise filled by Avanti passengers stood there for yp to half an hour (or in some cases more!)

 

[ScottGallagher]

Out of interest and i know it was the 60s so different standards and passenger volumes, how was the rebuild managed then ?

 

[Trainbike46]

Given the time it takes ro get any scheme designed, consulted on, approved and built, I'd suggest pre-HS2 we need to focus on the most simple, relatively straightforward solutions which could be delivered within 5 years, ideally 2 or 3 given the state of the station today.

A few options that could be looked into:

An arrivals exit for platforms 1-3 onto Evesholt Street by re-purposing the existing maintenance entrance. Given these platforms are almost exclusively used by Avanti, that's not an insignificant number of arriving passengers who can be moved away from the main concourse. A small section of Evesholt Street itself would need some pedestrianisation & way finding improvements to guide passengers to the forecourt/tube, but nothing that interferes structurally with the existing station.

Great idea - it would be shorter for passengers heading on to St. Pancras, and no longer for people heading to buses/tube/etc.

Removal of all retail/hospitality units close to the platforms, creating additional circulation space, removing contra-flow of people boarding/arriving from platforms against shop-goers.

Good idea, though I would likely remove most/all of the ground-floor hospitality units to exapnd the concourse (and the ladies toilets, I've seen absurd queueing for those, so they clearly need to be bigger, at least for busy times)

Add a canopy to the station forecourt, which is heavily used in the summer months as an additional waiting area taking some pressure off the main concourse. A canopy would shelter it from the elements (wind/rain) making it more suitable for year-round usage.

Make Overground access via the tube concourse only. There's already an entrance to the tube platforms from the Overground bays. With some directional arrows (Green/Red floor markers) it should be possible to guide people through the Tube concourse in both directions. Most use the tube for onward connections anyway, so relatively few would need to access the forecourt via the tube entrance there.

Re-purpose the booking office as an Avanti customer only waiting room with seating and departure boards. With Avanti passengers generally getting to the station much earlier than people using other TOCs due to frequencies, it makes sense to create a waiting area exclusively for them. Simply show your ticket/QR code to get in. It'd keep the concourse free for more transitory movements, rather than having huge swathes of people stood in position in front of the departure boards for up to half an hour.

Improve the Avanti App to show real-time platform data to match that of RealTimeTrains. This should ensure more people get to the train earlier who have the app, those who don't will be a little later, but as everyone isn't moving at once, it more evenly distributes flows toward the platforms. Eg. Elderly Users may not have the app, and they're the ones who generally need a safer-passage to the platforms. If the younger crowd have already made their way to the train according to the app (which would likely be ahead of the departure boards) it gives elderly people a clearer route to the platforms once the bulk of passengers have already moved.

I'm not convinced these are helpful tbh - and how would an avanti-only waiting room even work. I'd just retain the ticket office/tvm area, maybe add some extra TVMs if there's regular queueing to use those.

I'd add extra (small) departure boards at many places around the station, including the table area outside leon on the mezzanine, in starbucks, more places outside, to help people spread out more. Of course, the current outside departure boards are a good start with that.

 

[Richardr]

This is true! However Avanti trains carry c.500-600 people, most of whom arrive up to half an hour before their train, which contrasts against LNR and the Overground especially. Giving them a separate waiting area may therefore free up a lot of space on the concourse otherwise filled by Avanti passengers stood there for yp to half an hour (or in some cases more!)

How many would a waiting area cater for?

Assume 500 people and 4 trains in the half hour wait - that is 2,000 people. Clearly the real numbers are somewhat lower, but will a specific waiting area make much of a dent unless it is huge?

 

[GJMarshy]

How many would a waiting area cater for?

Assume 500 people and 4 trains in the half hour wait - that is 2,000 people. Clearly the real numbers are somewhat lower, but will a specific waiting area make much of a dent unless it is huge?

Realistically though only a small portion will want a seat, with many going to cafes/bars or simply standing. The waiting room would take the excess. The people that want a seat having arrived early, but don’t any to spend money in cafes etc or stand.

It would effectively just better-distribute passengers around the station rather than resulting in hoards stood centrally or leaning against walls/pillars etc.

 

[Bald Rick]

Out of interest and i know it was the 60s so different standards and passenger volumes, how was the rebuild managed then ?

The station rebuild in the mid 60s was done largely concurrent with electrification. Although in the main the track layout was not significantly altered. It was done by diverting most of the traffic away - Birmingham trains to Paddington, Manchester trains and some Scotland passengers to St Pancras, postal traffic to a temporary facility on the south / west side of the tracks near Kilburn High Road (there’s still a Royal Mail facility there now). Commuting numbers on what is now the LNR services were much less than today. Took a few years.

For the remodelling 1999-2000, the staton itself was largely untouched (except for making the ramp down to 16-18 much wider), but all the tracks, signalling and OLE (but not all the gantries) were replaced. There was a year and a half of prep works and some of the less disruptive stuff, mostly involving weekend / overnight works where some of the tracks were worked on, but the station remained open. Then from Easter to October 2000 there was a temporary timetable with reduced service levels and roughly one third of the station taken out of use at a time. From memory 15-18 were taken out for the first few weeks, then 12-18, then 8-14, and finally 1-7.

The service reductions took out a handful of peak Virgin services, about 30% of the Silverlink peak (partly offset with 12 coach trains where possible) and the DC (overgrounds) were diverted to the NLL for the duration. Sleepers were a bit tricky as there was only one platform for them throughout, so they had to follow each other in; if the first arrival was late the second had to be held in Wembley or Kensal Green Loop until the platfrom was free. Of course this was in the days when there were fewer services - the standard off peak pattern was 5/6 Virgins, 5 Silverlinks, and 3 DC services (Silverlink Metro). Essentially the timetable was 12 trains per hour max, keeping a path clear in the off peak and squeezing another path in during the peak. It also helped that back then the morning Silverlink peak was done by 0900, whereas the Virgin peak was 0900-1000.


It all worked pretty well, except for the contractor cutting through the air main to the points on day one. Also Hatfield happened about a week after the main blockade finished, so it was a while until passengers felt the benefit of the new layout as temproary timetables were in force.


I’ve found this thread fascinating. Clearly Euston needs rebuilding, and it does get crowded, however I have never found it to be unsafe. I use it about 4 times a week, generally at peak time.

One thing - plans for the rebuilding of Euston have been under development for some time - a lot of time and effort (and money) has gone into it. The HS2 change of strategy has of course affected the timing and design of the conventional station rebuild. Regardless, it is a massive job and will not be cheap.

 

[Nottingham59]

I think if doing a complete rebuild I wouldn't look for an overall roof, I'd extend the concourse over the lines with multiple access escalators/ramps. This would make it a bit New St like at platform level, but once the 80x are all in service there would be no diesel which would make a huge difference.

I'd say the same.

• Keep arrivals at ground level with a direct walking route out of the station to the tube, and with access to an overbridge at the country end, giving exits to Hampstead Road and over Eversholt Road towards St Pancras via Phoenix Road.
• Build a mezzanine floor with several access points to each platform, for better managed departures.
• Have big open areas in the Mezzanine, so that the trains below are visible from the concourse. This is done very well at Berlin Hauptbahnhof, and make the whole station layout much easier to understand at a glance.

When rebuilding, at least four platforms should be long enough to take 400m trains. By the time HS2 opens (or soon after), the major stations on the northern WCML like Crewe, Preston, Carlisle will have 400m platforms. So it would make sense for son-of-Pendolino express WCML services to run 400m trains out of Euston too. (But that is a topic for another thread!)

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'd say the same.

• Keep arrivals at ground level with a direct walking route out of the station to the tube, and with access to an overbridge at the country end, giving exits to Hampstead Road and over Eversholt Road towards St Pancras via Phoenix Road.
• Build a mezzanine floor with several access points to each platform, for better managed departures.
• Have big open areas in the Mezzanine, so that the trains below are visible from the concourse. This is done very well at Berlin Hauptbahnhof, and make the whole station layout much easier to understand at a glance.

When rebuilding, at least four platforms should be long enough to take 400m trains. By the time HS2 opens (or soon after), the major stations on the northern WCML like Crewe, Preston, Carlisle will have 400m platforms. So it would make sense for son-of-Pendolino express WCML services to run 400m trains out of Euston too. (But that is a topic for another thread!)

You'd probably want to be swapping over the layout - 400m IC platforms in the middle, 240m suburban platforms at the sides.

 

[The Planner]

You'd probably want to be swapping over the layout - 400m IC platforms in the middle, 240m suburban platforms at the sides.

Line X gives Euston a considerable amount of flexibility and is key in enabling any maintenance strategy. You wouldn't want to hamstring yourself like this unless the 400m platforms are in a decent number.

 

[Wolfie]

Well I would say return it to its as-built condition with an uncluttered, airy concourse.

But I'm not an accountant.

In theory great. In practice when it is handling three times the passenger numbers that it was then perhaps not so easy.... Oh and those, or at least some of those, passengers will want services such as retail, hospitality and toilets too.

I was thinking Zurich HbF style so no wall at all down Eversholt St so you just walk into the station and onto platform 1 the entire way. Other gates could be barriered but you would make it far more open plan, even if you had to do some major reconstruction (I'm thinking the steps up to the councourse level M&S that demonstrates that three meter high difference).

Hmmm..... Might be great for access for rail passengers, particularly those who wish to avoid paying, but certainly, given the demographic around the station, unlikely to enhance their physical security to put it politely.

From the nonspeculative thread:



In normal two-way use, that is probably one of the few use-cases that having moved the Tube entrance to the outside wall has improved.

FWIW the conflicts in the Tube ticket hall could be reduced by changing the layout of the gateline, which doesn't need to be as it is now hardly anyone needs to use the ticket machines any more. If you had it as entrance at the two sides and exit in the middle (with suitable barriers in place to direct people the right way - it would mean the 8-11 tunnel needing to be "walk on the right", the opposite of the norm) the crossovers of flows would be eliminated. It could be done the other way round but that would cause a blockage as people stopped before the gateline to decide which way to exit.

You would get some crossover from the up escalators against people coming in from the 8-11 flow but if the gateline was repositioned this would be in a much bigger area. Or changing the escalators round (to down, up, up, down) could avoid that too.

Euston underground ticket hall needs completely rebuilding, at least twice the size, with lift access to all platforms. It is even less adequate than Euston mainline. If HS2 proceeds a second ticket hall, with direct access from the platforms, would also be beneficial.

Given the time it takes ro get any scheme designed, consulted on, approved and built, I'd suggest pre-HS2 we need to focus on the most simple, relatively straightforward solutions which could be delivered within 5 years, ideally 2 or 3 given the state of the station today.

A few options that could be looked into:

An arrivals exit for platforms 1-3 onto Evesholt Street by re-purposing the existing maintenance entrance. Given these platforms are almost exclusively used by Avanti, that's not an insignificant number of arriving passengers who can be moved away from the main concourse. A small section of Evesholt Street itself would need some pedestrianisation & way finding improvements to guide passengers to the forecourt/tube, but nothing that interferes structurally with the existing station.

People who live around Euston are already mightily fed-up of having their lives disrupted for over a decade. Don't exactly hold your breath on them welcoming further disruption due to displaced traffic etc..... The local MP, one Sir Kier Starmer, might be kept busy....

 

[AF91]

Make Overground access via the tube concourse only. There's already an entrance to the tube platforms from the Overground bays. With some directional arrows (Green/Red floor markers) it should be possible to guide people through the Tube concourse in both directions. Most use the tube for onward connections anyway, so relatively few would need to access the forecourt via the tube entrance there.

Re-purpose the booking office as an Avanti customer only waiting room with seating and departure boards. With Avanti passengers generally getting to the station much earlier than people using other TOCs due to frequencies, it makes sense to create a waiting area exclusively for them. Simply show your ticket/QR code to get in. It'd keep the concourse free for more transitory movements, rather than having huge swathes of people stood in position in front of the departure boards for up to half an hour.

On the Overground access, the overground service only uses one of the four platforms accessible from the tube concourse. Hampering access to these platforms would cause havoc given the numbers of passengers using individual LNR services and moving LNR away from these platforms would be both a waste of platform capacity and would add to the overcrowding for the other platforms. Given how crowded the tube concourse gets currently, I don't think it could cope with non tube customers having to pass through it to get to platforms 8-11.

On customer waiting rooms, there wouldn't really be a need to limit it to Avanti customers as as you say, commuters are less likely to need to use it due to passing through the station faster. Surely encouraging any customers who aren't looking to board a train imminently to wait away from the main concourse would be beneficial.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The seated waiting area under the old departure board is rarely full. People don't really want to sit down if it might mean delaying entering the "scrum" and thus not getting a seat.

 

[Bevan Price]

Given the time it takes ro get any scheme designed, consulted on, approved and built, I'd suggest pre-HS2 we need to focus on the most simple, relatively straightforward solutions which could be delivered within 5 years, ideally 2 or 3 given the state of the station today.

A few options that could be looked into:

An arrivals exit for platforms 1-3 onto Evesholt Street by re-purposing the existing maintenance entrance. Given these platforms are almost exclusively used by Avanti, that's not an insignificant number of arriving passengers who can be moved away from the main concourse. A small section of Evesholt Street itself would need some pedestrianisation & way finding improvements to guide passengers to the forecourt/tube, but nothing that interferes structurally with the existing station.

Many years ago, the exit into Eversholt Street was available as an alternative exit for passengers.

 

[HSTEd]

You'd probably want to be swapping over the layout - 400m IC platforms in the middle, 240m suburban platforms at the sides.

Ideally I guess you'd want all platforms (apart from the one or two set aside for the DCs) to be 400m or so.

I suppose it depends on how radical the reconstruction is - if it is to tear the station down and start again then we might as well take advantage.

At the end of the day, 400m platforms at Tring or maybe Milton Keynes Central are likely not going to "break the bank" compared to Euston extensions, so why not?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Ideally I guess you'd want all platforms (apart from the one or two set aside for the DCs) to be 400m or so.

I suppose it depends on how radical the reconstruction is - if it is to tear the station down and start again then we might as well take advantage.

At the end of the day, 400m platforms at Tring or maybe Milton Keynes Central are likely not going to "break the bank" compared to Euston extensions, so why not?

Just don't think it would be worth the money. Most WMT services are 160m (8 car) with 12 not necessary, and I think some will be perfectly fine at 120m (5-car 730) once those arrive, particularly the off peak Trings. It's unlikely we will reach the point any time soon of needing all trains to be 240m (that's basically 50% more capacity than now), and when we do we might as well take advantage of one of the key purposes of HS2 and increase the frequency from 2 to 4tph on the three main service groups (1 to 2 on the Trent) which will provide more capacity than is ever going to be needed, given that rail has almost all the market anyway on local travel to London.

The other reason to do long in the middle and short (ish, I'd not do any under 240m) at the sides is the typical shape of a station throat, unless you're going to do masses of extra demolition on the approaches.

 

[HSTEd]

The other reason to do long in the middle and short (ish, I'd not do any under 240m) at the sides is the typical shape of a station throat, unless you're going to do masses of extra demolition on the approaches.

Well if its a total reconstruction, we could fix that annoying reverse curve and skew the station around to actually face the throat. That should simplify things quite a bit.
Simplistic measurements I did using Google Earth suggest that a significant number of very long platforms could be fitted on the existing station complex area (including the cleared for HS2 area) like that. Especially if we adopt the aforementioned airport style departure deck over the platforms.

Obviously doing anything that drastic requires the entire station building to come down as a first step.

EDIT:
Edited for clarification about the meaning of "station complex" - also I guess the question is how close the buffer stops can be to Euston Road before they interfere with other stuff.
My understanding is Euston's platforms are more or less at street level, so I don't think they should interfere directly with the underground should they?

 

[Peter Sarf]

Well if its a total reconstruction, we could fix that annoying reverse curve and skew the station around to actually face the throat. That should simplify things quite a bit.
Simplistic measurements I did using Google Earth suggest that a significant number of very long platforms could be fitted on the existing station complex area (including the cleared for HS2 area) like that. Especially if we adopt the aforementioned airport style departure deck over the platforms.

Obviously doing anything that drastic requires the entire station building to come down as a first step.

EDIT:
Edited for clarification about the meaning of "station complex" - also I guess the question is how close the buffer stops can be to Euston Road before they interfere with other stuff.
My understanding is Euston's platforms are more or less at street level, so I don't think they should interfere directly with the underground should they?

My hunch is the Euston station tube ticket hall is not much deeper than the platform level, probably almost the same. When heading for the suburban platforms (8, 9, 10 & 11) from the tube ticket hall it is not an entire floor up the stairs iirc.

But it does seem that the easiest way to extend the platforms at Euston would be to go under a raised concourse.

 

[HSTEd]

I almost hesitate to bring it up because it is possibly the most crayonista thing I will say this year.

But I think a rebuilt from scratch Euston could handle a lot of trains using the land available, especially with an elevated concourse and the buffer stops as close as possible to Euston Road. Probably more than HS2 and the WCML need.

The St Pancras and Euston approaches are relatively close together in South Hampstead.
Anyone have any opinion on the possibility of diverting St PAncras EMR trains into the rebuilt Euston and freeing the St Pancras platforms for HS1 Domestic service in connection with the projected resignalling?