Published: 2 February, 2012

• Of course, Euston – which I have previously described as prospectively becoming London’s “Ground Zero” hole in the ground for a decade – and the plight of the 1,000 or so residents in the Regent’s Park estate are Camden’s primary concern.

It’s clear that neither the government nor HS2 Ltd have begun to think through their displacement.

There are issues in the middle of Camden too: Residents of Gloucester Avenue (and Fellows Road) haven’t been heard with their sensible suggestion of routing the tunnel directly under the West Coast mainline.

But I am anxious also to get onto the agenda reconsideration of the ludicrous and ill-thought- through link line, between the proposed HS2 and the existing HS1, to join up where Eurostars now burrow under Islington by York Way.

It is nothing short of folly that for the one mile from the Roundhouse to St Pancras Way, HS2 Ltd want to add an extra single track to the 1860s viaduct that currently carries huge numbers of passengers and freight on the North London Line.

Camden needs to make its voice heard to insist that an extra mile of tunnel must be added to the current plan for 23 miles of the 117-mile phase one.

I was the sole London councillor to attend a top-level conference on HS2 on Thursday with the Secretary of State.

I am pleased to report that at least Labour’s shadow transport supremo, Angela Eagle, has taken up this important cause. 

Now all I have to do is convince my own national party that if it’s hell-bent on the bling project then, like just the Chilterns and Hillingdon, Camden must have an extra mile of tunnelling, such that it won’t disrupt our much-loved Overground. 

You heard it here first.

Be warned.

Cllr Paul Braithwaite
Liberal Democrat shadow
for Transport and Sustainability