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Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

HS2 Euston

Status: Closed Opened: 15 Feb 2023 Closed: 24 Sep 2023 13 recommendations 14 conclusions 1 report

The Committee will question Dame Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport and Mark Thurston, Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd on progress with the design and development of a new HS2 station at Euston. Questions will include how the risks to value for money are being managed, integration with other developments including the …

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Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Sixty-Third Report - HS2 Euston HC 1004 7 Jul 2023 27 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

4 items
24 Conclusion Sixty-Third Report - HS2 Euston Acknowledged

Recurring departmental failures in budgeting, cost estimation, and integration across major rail programmes

The Department’s failures around budgeting, cost estimation and integration on the Euston project are not new. We have reported on these as part of our examination of other major rail programmes over the years. For example, on the Thameslink Programme, this committee found in 2018 that Network Rail did not …

Government response. The government acknowledged the committee's observation about past failures, stating it fosters a strong culture of learning lessons from major rail programmes and is applying them across HS2, including specific initiatives and sharing insights with less mature projects.
HM Treasury
25 Recommendation Sixty-Third Report - HS2 Euston Acknowledged

Department has not demonstrably embedded lessons learned into major rail programmes

We concluded in our 2021 progress update on Crossrail that the Department had still not demonstrated that it is embedding lessons learned into its major programmes.62 When we asked the Department again about learning lessons, the Department and HS2 Ltd told us that they are learning from Crossrail, such as …

Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation to embed lessons learned, stating it has a strong culture of learning from major rail programmes, works with the IPA, and applies lessons across HS2 phases through various initiatives, aiming for implementation by Summer …
HM Treasury
26 Conclusion Sixty-Third Report - HS2 Euston Acknowledged

Department identifies recurring lessons from Euston for future complex station developments

In terms of what it has learned from Euston, the Department told us that there are lessons on cost estimation, the treatment of contingency and managing integration on large and complex stations. These are all issues we have seen before on other major programmes, including those overseen by the Department. …

Government response. The government acknowledged the committee's observation regarding lessons learned from Euston, stating it fosters a culture of learning and will apply these lessons, particularly sharing insights with projects like Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham Curzon Street.
HM Treasury
27 Conclusion Sixty-Third Report - HS2 Euston Acknowledged

Advanced HS2 stations provide valuable data for later phases and integrated development

In comparison the Department and HS2 Ltd noted that other HS2 stations may be less complex or already more advanced in their progress than Euston, such as Curzon Street in Birmingham, where HS2 Ltd told us that the civil works is 40% complete. In the case of the more advanced …

Government response. The government acknowledged the committee's observation about drawing lessons from more advanced stations, stating it actively shares learning from mature projects like Birmingham Curzon Street with less mature ones such as Euston and Manchester Piccadilly.
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
24 Apr 2023 Alan Over · Department for Transport, Dame Bernadette Kelly DCB · Department for Transport, Mark Thurston · HS2 Ltd View ↗

Correspondence

1 letter
DateDirectionTitle
15 May 2023 — Correspondence from Dame Bernadette Kelly DCB, Permanent Secretary, Department …