Diggers smashed down swathes of land around Euston several years ago

THE target date for HS2 trains coming to Euston has been put back yet again – with a new target date of December 2043.

The railway building project – that has already blighted lives of thousands of people in Camden for over a decade – will take another 17 years to complete, the government said this week.

A cost-cutting review, published on Tuesday, has said there will be just six platforms and the new Euston station will be funded “by private finance and other sources”.

Hundreds of homes have already been demolished as well as independent businesses.

Neighbour­hoods have been torn apart, with green space bulldozed, mature trees axed and bus stops used by the elderly and disabled shut down for years.

Tens of thousands of graves have had to be exhumed. No compensation has ever been offered to tenants despite clear recommendations from the House of Lords.

There has never been any concrete plans for the station itself or, crucially, what will be built around and on top of it.

The latest review of the project, by the former National Security Adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove, says that slower than expected trains would help save on overall costs.

It also insists stopping the project now would be more expensive than completing it.

The railway was originally proposed by Labour peer Andrew Adonis as a super fast network of new railway lines linking up major cities as far north as Glasgow with the Eurostar and onto the continent.

This week, HS2 announced to residents that the tunnel boring machines – currently in Hammersmith – will reach the top of Parkway by the summer of 2027.

After that a further tunnelling works will take place beneath Hampstead Road and into the main construction site next to Euston Station. No funding or plans for this stage of the project are detailed in the new report.

Hero Grainger-Taylor, who lives in a Crown Estate flat in Park Village East, is one of many people who have spent years trying to agree terms with HS2 to buy their homes due to the “blight”.

In her case, the amount she will receive for her lease increases depending on how long the blight goes on for. She said: “There are so many people who have been trying to oppose this all along.

But we get dismissed as nimbys. No one has been given any compensation. Public transport has been disrupted. Houses have been on the market here for five years without being sold. Now we are talking about effectively another 20 years, it is a big thing.”

Ms Grainger-Taylor also said she was fed up with the “deception” of HS2 this week claiming its machines it would be tunnelling all the way to “Euston” – when in fact it is just Parkway.

The general secretary the Transport Salaried Staffs Association union Maryam Eslamdoust – a former mayor of Camden – said: “We have already seen far too many delays to HS2 – all of which are unacceptable because this is a project which is vital.

“We urgently need to see greater connectivity at local, regional and national levels – the UK is already far behind other major economies around the world when it comes to high-speed rail.

“What we are seeing is the impact of all the political flip-flopping on HS2 down the years.”

The government said: “We believe that the additional investment required to build the new HS2 station at Euston is an exciting opportunity for private investors.

“Confirmation of using a public-private partnership model will be subject to achieving appropriate risk transfer and delivering value for money for taxpayers.”

It added “HS2 will provide people with more choice about where to work, and where to study. Economic growth will also be driven by increased leisure travel, as it becomes quicker and easier for people to visit friends or explore different parts of the UK.”