HS2 tunnelling to Euston begins from Old Oak Common
HS2’s move into central London took a concrete step on 27 January 2026 as the first of two tunnel boring machines began its 4.5‑mile journey from Old Oak Common towards Euston. The start button was pressed in west London by ministers alongside HS2 Ltd and Transport for London, marking the phase that takes high‑speed trains into the city centre.
For readers new to tunnelling, a tunnel boring machine (TBM) is a mobile factory. It cuts, removes spoil and builds the tunnel all at once by fitting pre‑cast concrete segments into rings. This TBM, weighing around 1,624 tonnes, is named ‘Madeleine’ after engineer Madeleine Nobbs of the Women’s Engineering Society. A second machine will follow to complete the parallel tunnel to Euston.
Why Euston matters is straightforward: Old Oak Common will be a major interchange in west London, but Euston places high‑speed trains where Londoners already change between the Underground, buses and National Rail. That central location is what turns quicker inter‑city journeys into door‑to‑door time savings.
The economic case is central to today’s announcement. Camden Council cites analysis suggesting that a mix of new homes and commercial space around Euston could add about £41 billion to the UK economy by 2053 and support roughly 34,000 jobs. HS2 Ltd also points to work indicating up to £10 billion for west London over the next decade linked to construction, alongside scope for around 22,000 additional homes. These are estimates, not guarantees; they depend on planning approvals, private investment and delivery schedules.
Work to date is significant. According to the government, 23 miles of tunnels, 19 bridges and two viaducts have already been completed on the route between central London and Birmingham. Contractors Skanska Costain STRABAG (SCS JV) say they have driven 8.4 miles of twin‑bore tunnels under London from West Ruislip to Old Oak Common and will run 24/7 operations on the new drives.
A practical note on how Madeleine will move. The cutterhead rotates to excavate the ground; conveyors take spoil away; hydraulic rams push the machine forwards against the concrete ring it has just installed; crews install ring after ring. Over the drive, teams expect to remove more than 1.5 million tonnes of material and fit over 8,000 pre‑cast rings, with segments made in Hartlepool and moved by rail to cut traffic.
The project team says using rail rather than road for segments and spoil could avoid more than 70,000 lorry journeys. For residents near worksites, fewer HGVs should mean less congestion and emissions; for learners, it is a useful case study in how logistics choices shape a project’s environmental footprint.
On the ground today were ministers, HS2 Ltd’s chief executive Mark Wild, and London’s Transport Commissioner Andy Lord. Their message is that getting HS2 into central London is key to the railway’s benefits and that a reset across the programme is aimed at safer, more efficient delivery.
Delivery responsibilities are also shifting. A new Euston Delivery Company is due to lead the integrated transport hub: the HS2 station, the redevelopment of the existing mainline station, improvements to the Underground station and commercial development across the wider Euston campus.
Alongside this, the government trails new legislation to bring rail under Great British Railways, and is promoting a national fares freeze as relief for passengers. The Euston plans sit within that wider reform narrative: finishing the first phase between London and Birmingham at the lowest reasonable cost while building confidence in the programme.
What does this mean for you? If you travel into central London, Euston should ultimately offer smoother interchanges and faster journeys north. In the near term, tunnelling is round‑the‑clock work, so expect sustained construction activity as the machine advances east from Old Oak Common.
Media literacy reminder for classrooms: check the source of each number. Camden Council publishes the £41 billion estimate and jobs figure; HS2 Ltd provides the west London estimates and construction milestones. When we compare claims, we ask who commissioned the modelling, what the time horizon is and what assumptions sit underneath.