Euston St Pancras. It sounds like a station from some iffy bootleg tube map. But it's going to be a real thing. Hopefully.
While the fiasco that is Crossrail continues to drag its purple heels, plans are already simmering away for Crossrail 2 — a network that would link Surrey to Hertfordshire, via London. And one of the central London stations would be Euston St Pancras.
Will Euston St Pancras be a brand new station?
No. The only brand new station planned for Crossrail 2 (which, by the way, we want to nickname the Philip line, but won't), would be Chelsea King's Road. There's already been some nimbyish resistance to that plan, but that's by the by. Euston St Pancras wouldn't be a new station, per se, but the linking up of the existing stations at Euston and King's Cross St Pancras. (Sorry, King's Cross, you don't get a namecheck in the portmanteau.)
How will Euston St Pancras work?
This linking up of stations would be achieved with two new platforms, 250 metres long and 20 metres below the ground. They'd be situated between Euston and King's Cross St Pancras, running beneath Somers Town — a neighbourhood directly behind the British Library. Cross-passage walkways would link one platform to the other.
Crossrail 2 entrances and ticket halls would be installed in St Pancras station and at King's Cross — while an entirely new station entrance and ticket hall would be built in Grafton Place near Euston station.
The area is set to become even more of a transport hub than it already is, especially now HS2 has been given the go-ahead. Euston St Pancras would be a way to link Crossrail 2 with the Victoria and Northern lines, as well as high speed services to the Midlands and the north.
As with all proposed sub-surface Crossrail 2 stations (of which there could be up to 11), Euston St Pancras would have step-free access between station and street.
But will Euston St Pancras actually happen?
The Crossrail 2 route hasn't yet been finalised, so it hasn't been submitted. TfL's plan is to submit a hybrid bill in 2022, which would then take around two years to get Royal Assent. But it's estimated that by 2030, London's population will likely have swelled to almost 10 million; so more capacity on the transport network is essential. 30 Crossrail 2 trains would run through Euston St Pancras each way per hour, meaning 14,000 more passengers would fit in during peak hours — a 25% reduction in crowding. We wager that Crossrail 2, and Euston St Pancras, will indeed see the light.
The estimated time to get Euston St Pancras up and running (from commencement of work) is five to eight years, and TfL hopes that Crossrail 2 would be completed as early as 2030. So we're still quite a way off Euston St Pancras happening. But that's no reason not to get excited about it.
