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London Euston HS2

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Mikey C

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Do you reckon? It's impressive, but it's more of a fancy shopping arcade with 4 separate, seriously substandard railway stations bolted on.

I'd say Kings Cross was a vastly better job.

As for Euston I really don't mind it, but rebuilding the platforms so they were all say 300m long would be of great benefit. One of the constraints on peak time 12-car operation is that two of the suburban platforms are only 8-car.

My favourite rebuild job is what BR did to Liverpool Street 30 years ago, which transformed it into a modern station while honouring its heritage
 
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PeterC

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My favourite rebuild job is what BR did to Liverpool Street 30 years ago, which transformed it into a modern station while honouring its heritage
It looks lovely but keeping the West Side in its current form did mean that platform capacity wasn't increased as originally intended.
 

6Gman

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My favourite rebuild job is what BR did to Liverpool Street 30 years ago, which transformed it into a modern station while honouring its heritage

Eh? The Liverpool Street with platforms that make Euston's look bright and cheery? :D
 

6Gman

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It looked better than the present station (that is hardly difficult) but I agree, it wasn't the nicest building.

I would still claim that the 1960s station was actually both functional and attractive. It's all the accretions since then which have created the current hell-hole. (Together with ever increasing passenger volumes.)
 

6Gman

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The decision not to do a major rebuild of Euston is a lost opportunity. Kings Cross and St Pancras have massively benefited from their redevelopments (STP must now be one of the best railways stations in Europe)

God help us if that's one of the best in Europe ! :D

1. The EMT platforms are a long way from ... well, almost anywhere.
2. When you get there the waiting area is cramped.
3. Access to the SE platforms is as convoluted as could be - enter the station, walk past the escalators in order to get on them; then - at the top - turn around on yourself again to reach the platforms via a very cramped concourse (which isn't really a concourse, just a tiny circulating area).
4. The Left Luggage - which ought to be near the entrance {but which entrance?} - is in Luton.
5. The food offering is patchy, unless you want smashed avocado at £8 a throw.
6. Access to LU is ... interesting (partly because the signage is confusing).
 

NotATrainspott

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There are some good renders and drawings of the current(-ish?) plans for Euston on the Grimshaw website:

https://grimshaw.global/projects/hs2-euston-station/

e.g.

160125_Euston_APO3_IPD_South_AMENDED4.jpg

This one is good since it shows the ground level passenger layout of the new station. You can see the central service spine up the middle at the border with the retained Euston platforms. This spine will include a multi-level tube concourse.

12016_N2_a3.jpg
 

Leo1961

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God help us if that's one of the best in Europe ! :D

1. The EMT platforms are a long way from ... well, almost anywhere.
2. When you get there the waiting area is cramped.
3. Access to the SE platforms is as convoluted as could be - enter the station, walk past the escalators in order to get on them; then - at the top - turn around on yourself again to reach the platforms via a very cramped concourse (which isn't really a concourse, just a tiny circulating area).
4. The Left Luggage - which ought to be near the entrance {but which entrance?} - is in Luton.
5. The food offering is patchy, unless you want smashed avocado at £8 a throw.
6. Access to LU is ... interesting (partly because the signage is confusing).

Where is that "like" button again?

I remember when St. Pancras was covered in soot and had only "Peaks" and 4-car DMUs to look at, but given a choice I would bring that version back. It wasn't pretty, but it was functional for the passengers.
 

Mikey C

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God help us if that's one of the best in Europe ! :D

1. The EMT platforms are a long way from ... well, almost anywhere.
2. When you get there the waiting area is cramped.
3. Access to the SE platforms is as convoluted as could be - enter the station, walk past the escalators in order to get on them; then - at the top - turn around on yourself again to reach the platforms via a very cramped concourse (which isn't really a concourse, just a tiny circulating area).
4. The Left Luggage - which ought to be near the entrance {but which entrance?} - is in Luton.
5. The food offering is patchy, unless you want smashed avocado at £8 a throw.
6. Access to LU is ... interesting (partly because the signage is confusing).

At least there's a Wetherspoons now :D

It's interesting that the Left Luggage is at the domestic end of the station next to the toilets (of which the ladies always seem massively overcrowded), I hadn't thought of it as being odd before
 

The Ham

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And Boris is looking to postpone HS2 per news reports

The ones I've seen state he's reviewing HS2, using a former chairman of HS2. The first bit if that got those opposed to HS2 excited, the second bit got them agitated.
 

Tobbes

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I'd like to bring back the Arch; it needs to be seen as 19th Century statement architecture - here was the London to Birmingham Railway, technological marvel of its age, revolutionising transport and praying-in-aid the architecture of classical Rome. I'm all for it!
 

themiller

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I'd like to bring back the Arch; it needs to be seen as 19th Century statement architecture - here was the London to Birmingham Railway, technological marvel of its age, revolutionising transport and praying-in-aid the architecture of classical Rome. I'm all for it!
If you put your address on here, you may be lucky enough to find it re-erected in your garden! :)
Being serious, when do we stop constraining improvements to our national infrastructure by inappropriately forcing incorporation of icons of a bygone era?
 

Tobbes

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If you put your address on here, you may be lucky enough to find it re-erected in your garden! :)
Being serious, when do we stop constraining improvements to our national infrastructure by inappropriately forcing incorporation of icons of a bygone era?

Fair enough, and I wouldn't want to constrain progress - but to have a sympathetic reconstruction with the surviving elements (the "gate houses") would be very welcome in uniting the old and (very) new.
 

camflyer

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I'd like to bring back the Arch; it needs to be seen as 19th Century statement architecture - here was the London to Birmingham Railway, technological marvel of its age, revolutionising transport and praying-in-aid the architecture of classical Rome. I'm all for it!

I'm all for statement architecture but it needs to be a 21st century statement not a recreation of a 19th century one. That's why I was in favour of a total rebuild of Euston rather than patching it up.
 

edwin_m

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I'm all for statement architecture but it needs to be a 21st century statement not a recreation of a 19th century one. That's why I was in favour of a total rebuild of Euston rather than patching it up.
I'd say Kings Cross is a good example of taking what's best about the old and putting it in a new setting. Had the arch survived* something similar could have been done with it now - and it would probably have looked much less overbearing if it had been properly cleaned up rather than the sooty state it was in photos.

*It would have been rather difficult to keep, as I understand its exact location was somewhere around the ramp down to the LNW platforms.
 
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