London’s Euston station, one of the UK’s busiest rail hubs, is entering a new period of disruption just as the High Speed 2 (HS2) project gears up again and fresh infrastructure problems hit the West Coast Main Line. From overhead line failures and short-notice cancellations to years of construction work tied to HS2’s long-delayed London terminus, thousands of commuters are already feeling the impact. With new tunnelling now underway and more intensive works planned from 2026, passengers who rely on Euston for daily travel or long-distance journeys are being warned to expect a bumpy ride.
What Is Happening at Euston Right Now
Euston has long been a pressure point for Britain’s rail network, but recent weeks have brought the station’s fragility into sharp focus. On 6 February 2026, a fault on the West Coast Main Line near Watford Junction triggered widespread delays and cancellations on Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway services, disrupting flows into and out of Euston throughout the day. Local transport sites and London media reported some trains cancelled outright and others running significantly late, leaving concourses crowded and departure boards in a constant state of flux.
That disruption followed other incidents linked to overhead line equipment and signalling on the approaches to Euston, underlining how intensively used and finely balanced the West Coast corridor has become. Even minor technical failures can cascade into severe delays when services are operating near capacity. For commuters travelling between London, the Midlands and the North West, this pattern of unpredictable disruption is becoming all too familiar, particularly at peak times.
Overlaying these operational issues is a much larger change: Euston’s role as the eventual London terminus for HS2. After years of uncertainty and a government-ordered pause, work is now visibly moving forward again on the section of HS2 that will run into central London. The restart of major tunnelling works and the build-up to extensive enabling works around the station mean that the disruption seen this month is likely to be a preview of a more prolonged period of upheaval.
HS2 Tunnelling to Euston: A Major New Phase
The most significant development for Euston commuters is the launch of HS2’s final tunnel drive from Old Oak Common to Euston. In late January 2026, government ministers and HS2 executives gathered at Old Oak Common to mark the start of tunnelling by the first of two huge tunnel boring machines that will carve a 4.5 mile twin-bore tunnel towards central London. Official statements describe this as a key milestone in fully integrating HS2 with London’s existing rail network and delivering the economic benefits promised by the project.
The twin tunnels will take between 12 and 18 months to complete, with the giant machines expected to progress at up to 150 metres a week and reach depths of around 50 metres under north-west London. Industry briefings indicate that the boring machines, named Madeleine and Karen, are due to reach beneath the Euston approaches in 2027. Once the main drives are finished, crews will dismantle the equipment in underground caverns and remove it by road, an operation that will itself bring local traffic and logistics challenges.
For now, much of this activity remains out of sight to passengers using Euston’s existing platforms. However, the tunnelling phase is only one part of a much broader programme of works that will increasingly spill over into the operational railway. As enabling works expand and the focus shifts from underground tunnelling to station approaches, track connections and utilities, the likelihood of weekend closures, reduced timetables and diverted services into Euston will rise.
The Long Shadow of Euston’s HS2 Station Plans
HS2’s arrival beneath Euston is only half the story. The other half is what happens on the surface. For years, the future layout and funding of the new HS2 station at Euston have been mired in political and financial wrangling. Parliamentary watchdogs have repeatedly warned that there is still no fully worked-out plan covering the new high-speed platforms, the integration with the existing Network Rail station, upgrades to the Underground interchange and the extensive commercial and housing developments proposed around the site.
Work on elements linked to the Euston tunnels was already paused once, in 2024, as HS2 and the government tried to rein in costs and re-scope the project. In 2025, HS2 confirmed that several associated works, such as shafts and station approach structures, would be held for up to two years while attention shifted to completing the line between Birmingham and Old Oak Common. Meanwhile, major demolition had already taken place around Euston, leaving cleared plots and partially reconfigured streets but no finalised blueprint for the station that will replace them.
In late 2024 and through 2025, ministers recommitted to taking HS2 to Euston and began to advance new designs. Recent commentary from the Department for Transport and HS2’s leadership suggests that a revised station concept is “virtually agreed” in spatial terms and may ultimately support more high-speed platforms than previously planned. However, key questions over how the scheme will be funded, and the extent to which private investment will underwrite the expected multibillion-pound cost, remain unresolved. For passengers, the practical implication is that construction activity and disruption around Euston will continue for years before a finished station is in sight.
Engineering Works, Utilities and a Tighter Network
Beyond HS2 itself, a series of utilities and infrastructure schemes around Euston will directly affect the day-to-day running of trains. Specialist civil engineering contractors have been commissioned to deliver an extensive new multi-utility corridor across the northern part of the HS2 Euston site, involving more than a kilometre of diversions for water, gas and other services. Design work on these diversions is under way, with construction expected to ramp up from March 2026 and run into the late 2020s.
These utility works are a prerequisite for building the new HS2 station and reconfiguring the wider Euston area, but they come with a heavy logistical footprint. Coordinating heavy plant movements, road closures, access for construction vehicles and the protection of existing rail assets is a complex task. Local authorities and community representatives have pressed HS2 and its partners to maximise the use of rail to remove tunnel spoil and bring in materials, reducing lorry traffic on already congested Camden streets.
Minutes from the Euston Partnership Board, which brings together HS2, Network Rail, the Department for Transport, Camden Council and other stakeholders, reveal ongoing efforts to revive spoil removal by rail from dedicated railheads near Euston’s platforms. That plan would rely on staging works carefully so that engineering trains and construction accesses can operate alongside a still-busy passenger timetable. Each additional train path allocated for construction reduces flexibility for passenger services, which may translate into thinner off-peak timetables or longer overnight possessions.
How Commuters Are Feeling the Impact
For commuters travelling from the Midlands, North West England, Scotland and north Wales, the consequences of Euston’s current troubles and future works are highly tangible. Euston is the southern anchor of the West Coast Main Line, Britain’s busiest intercity route. When overhead line failures or signalling faults occur between Euston and key pinch points such as Watford Junction or Rugby, a large volume of long-distance and commuter services is instantly at risk.
Recent incidents have seen passengers stranded on concourses as trains are curtailed before reaching London, with empty stock and diverted services used to reset the disrupted timetable. Operators typically urge passengers not to travel unless necessary, and those who do attempt to complete their journeys can face late-night arrivals, missed onward connections and crowded replacement buses. For many regular travellers, this intermittent chaos is layered on top of existing frustrations with rail strikes, timetable reductions and lingering reliability issues dating back several years.
Within London, Euston’s disruption is also felt on the Underground and bus network. When national rail services are delayed or compressed, waves of passengers may arrive in large bursts rather than at a steady flow, putting sudden pressure on Victoria and Northern line platforms and on nearby bus stops on Euston Road. Transport planners have repeatedly warned that until HS2, Euston and Old Oak Common are fully integrated, London will be managing a long transition period in which major works and constrained capacity interact in unpredictable ways.
Knock-on Effects Beyond Euston
The problems at Euston are increasingly interwoven with wider changes on Britain’s intercity network. HS2 construction at Old Oak Common has already prompted Great Western Railway to warn of years of intermittent closures and reduced track capacity on the Great Western Main Line into London Paddington. In the coming years, trains from Wales and the South West are expected to be diverted more frequently into Euston during extended engineering blockades at Paddington, particularly around holiday periods.
That means Euston must sometimes absorb additional long-distance services on top of its usual West Coast flows, further tightening platform capacity and limiting room for contingency when things go wrong. During such diversions, passengers from cities like Cardiff, Swansea, Plymouth and Penzance can find themselves arriving at an unfamiliar London terminus, needing to navigate across the capital on the Underground or by bus to reach their usual destinations. Any disruption at Euston on those days therefore ripples across regions that would not ordinarily use the station at all.
Elsewhere on the national network, intensive blocks are under way or scheduled at other key hubs, such as the nine day closure of Manchester Piccadilly’s southern approaches in February 2026 for major signalling and track replacements. Each of these schemes is intended to boost resilience in the long term, but in the short term they reduce options for rerouting trains during incidents. As a result, Euston’s ability to cope gracefully with faults or extreme weather is more constrained than in the past, reinforcing the sense among commuters that the system has little spare capacity left.
What Passengers Need to Know and How to Prepare
For now, there is no single date after which Euston’s disruption will suddenly intensify or resolve. Instead, passengers should prepare for a rolling programme of works and intermittent operational problems stretching across the remainder of the decade. Government and industry statements indicate that HS2 services will not begin running into Euston until well into the 2030s, which means that most of the 2020s will be spent in a construction and integration phase rather than enjoying the benefits of faster journeys.
Rail operators are likely to continue relying on weekend possessions, overnight closures and holiday blockades to carry out the most intrusive works, particularly on approach tracks and junctions feeding into Euston. In practice, that means passengers should expect more short-term alterations around bank holidays, Christmas and late-summer periods, when large engineering teams can occupy sections of the line continuously. Advance timetables will usually flag these changes, but ad hoc faults and weather-related incidents can still trigger on-the-day cancellations and diversions.
For individual travellers, the most practical response is to build in extra time, check live journey planners before departure and pay close attention to advice from operators such as Avanti West Coast, London Northwestern Railway and Transport for London. Those with critical same-day commitments may wish to travel earlier than strictly necessary or consider alternative routes that avoid the most heavily worked sections of line. While the overarching narrative is one of disruption, many days still pass without major incident, and careful planning can make the difference between a manageable delay and a missed meeting or connection.
The Road Ahead for One of Britain’s Busiest Stations
In the longer term, policymakers argue that today’s upheaval at Euston will yield a more modern, higher-capacity rail hub that can support economic growth and new housing in central London while connecting more of the country to fast, frequent services. Camden Council and the Department for Transport have both highlighted projections that a redeveloped Euston, tied to HS2 and new commercial districts around the station, could generate tens of billions of pounds in economic benefit and tens of thousands of jobs by the middle of the century.
Yet those promises sit uncomfortably alongside the daily reality for passengers queueing beneath departure boards that flash delay and cancellation codes with wearying frequency. The restart of tunnelling and the resumption of enabling works confirm that Euston is moving into a new, more intense phase of works rather than nearing the end of its disruption. For thousands of commuters, students and leisure travellers who pass through its concourse each day, Euston has become both a vital gateway and a symbol of the strain on Britain’s railways.
As 2026 unfolds, Euston’s story will be one of competing timelines: the slow, underground progress of tunnel boring machines between Old Oak Common and the station; the faster, sometimes chaotic rhythms of day-to-day operations on the West Coast Main Line; and the still-uncertain schedule for delivering a finished HS2 terminus above ground. Until those timelines converge, passengers can expect London’s Euston station to remain at the heart of the UK’s latest major rail disruption, shaping how the country moves for years to come.