[original thread on uk.railway]
[x-posted to uk.transport.london]

On 31 Jan, 23:52, Martin Petrov wrote:
The new stuff that's being built outside of Euston at the moment - is
that preparation work for rebuilding the main station? Or not related
at all?


It's not preparation work for the big rebuild, instead it's more
immediate improvements, although Network Rail say they will
"complement" the proposed future redevelopment. The big rebuilding of
the station, being led by the property company British Land, won't
begin until at least 2011, so says Building magazine - though I
wouldn't be amazingly surprised if this got put back, and I suppose
it's possible this particular scheme may never happen. Note that I
don't have any inside info though, just speculating.

Also, aside from considerations about the economy, I dare say it might
not be considered ideal for one of the main London termini to be in
the process of being rebuilt whilst the Olympics are on. Plus, in the
hard to imagine situation that the Tories get moving on their high
speed rail plans (assuming they get elected in 2010, which is what I
and pretty much everyone else is assuming), then Euston is regarded as
the obvious choice of the London end of it as it has enough space to
accommodate it. The planned arrival of a high-speed line and
subsequent requirement to rebuild Euston in a different way could I
suppose put the brakes on the present redevelopment plan - unless the
current plan would be compatible?

Anyway, here's some more information - first Network Rail on what they
call the "Euston Station upgrade":
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/4771.aspx

And a short Building Magazine news piece from 2007 on British Land
winning the redevelopment contract for Euston:
http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3084568