Inside London's new rail super hub as HS2 line passes major milestone

Like a Greek temple, the pillars at Old Oak Common Station rise with extraordinary strength towards the skies.The sheer scale of the structures in the vast concrete cavern is overwhelming.Old Oak Common StationLuke ReeveyIt is a feat of engineering to rival the greatest rail stations constructed in Britain.“This is the largest station built in London for must be at least 100 years,” Rail Minister Lord Hendy tells The Standard.“Look at the architecture, look at the size of it.“It's going to be absolutely wonderful.”Rail Minister Lord Hendy at Old Oak Common StationLuke ReeveyHe was speaking after HS2 tunnelling, running under west London like the city’s veins, broke through into the Old Oak Common Station box.The weight of some 14,000 double-decker buses has been excavated to connect the 14-platform rail super hub, which will be used by up to 250,000 passengers a day, to the high speed line.Unlike HS2’s other excavated tunnels, which have predominantly been built using gigantic tunnel boring machines, the two 360-metre long sections were mined through London clay using tunnel excavators and lined with 30,000m3 of sprayed concrete. Breakthrough moment as the HS2 line reaches Old Oak Common StationLuke ReeveyThe huge project is expected to be complete by mid-2027.Gigantic tunnels are being built for the HS2 high speed lineLuke ReeveyThe full service from Euston to Birmingham and a connection to the West Coast Main Line is not expected to run until between 2040 and 2043.Read More“Of course, like the Elizabeth line, the day it opens, everybody will have forgotten how long it took and how much it cost,” says Lord Hendy, a former London Transport Commissioner.“But they'll be concentrating on the benefits, and I think we'll see here a huge benefit to the economy of London, driven by this railway, and of course the economy of Birmingham and further north as the trains get further north.”