Work has started to dig the tunnel that will take the HS2 rail line from west London to Euston in the capital’s centre.
The first of two boring machines was switched on by Rail Minister Lord Hendy and Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Prime Minister, at Old Oak Common on Tuesday.
The 190m-long boring machine is named Madeleine, after Madeleine Nobbs, the former president of the Women’s Engineering Society.
It is expected to take about 18 months for the machine to complete the 4.5-mile journey from Old Oak Common in west London.
Madeleine was built in Germany and transported to the UK in parts. A 750-tonne crane lifted the components into an underground box at one end of the station, where it was reassembled.
Madeleine’s companion machine is named Karen, after Karen Harrison, the first female train driver in the UK, who was based out of the Old Oak Common depot. Karen will be launched in the coming months.
The machines will excavate and construct the tunnel as they move, slotting concrete segments into place. The tunnel will reach depths of 50 metres.
At the launch of the machines, Jones said: “There’s nothing boring about tunnel boring.
“We’re boosting the links between our big cities across the country to create more opportunities for people to trade, meet and socialise with each other, turning the corner on years of decline.”
Lord Hendy said the machines were “an engineering marvel” and “brings HS2’s journey to Euston another step closer to reality”.
HS2 has been beleaguered by delays and setbacks and the cost has snowballed to at least £80bn.
There have been reports the project could cost £100bn, even after the legs to Manchester and Leeds were scrapped. A revised cost and schedule for HS2 will be published this year.
Under the previous government, there were doubts over whether HS2 would terminate in Euston due to funding costs. In 2023, work on a new station at Euston was put on pause.
Then-prime minister Rishi Sunak said extending the high-speed rail project from Old Oak Common to Euston would be reliant on private investment.
However, in her Budget in October the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, committed to the funding required to begin tunnelling work to Euston.
It is still not clear exactly what the station will look like, or when it will be completed.
A new body, the Euston Delivery Company, is due to lead delivery of what the government says will be an “affordable and integrated transport hub”. This new body has yet to be established.
The government says taking HS2 to Euston is “essential to unlocking the project’s full economic potential”.
One of the most expensive aspects of HS2 has been the need for tunnels. The track from London to Birmingham needs to be as straight as possible to allow for high speed.
Objections from local residents and the need to protect areas of outstanding natural beauty through which the route runs have pushed up costs.
The first phase of the project was initially scheduled to open by the end of this year.
This was pushed back to between 2029 and 2033, but it has since been confirmed that that deadline will also be missed.
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