Tom Foot has been reporting on HS2 since the plans were first announced… but what will come first: the train or retirement?

I CAME to a reassuring conclusion this week that if the Euston terminus is indeed completed by 2041, I will be in my early sixties and the proud owner of a Senior Railcard. At least my first journey out of Camden on the country’s flagship railway will come at a discounted fare.

I look forward to whizzing-up to the north of England, marginally quicker than before, perhaps for a nice ramble in the Peak District.

Over the years I have spoken to hundreds of people affected by HS2. Many were forced out of their homes or – worse – got left behind in blocks next to the construction site.

The mood has moved from furious to tormented to weary resignation of a potentially decades-long fate. The truth is I feel worn out just from reporting on the mind-bogglingly imprudent mess. It is the railway that no one seems to want but that MPs routinely support.

There has always been a kind of national cognitive dissonance about the project as a whole that began when the “link line” through Camden Town was cut.

The original plan was to splinter the railway off at Primrose Hill allowing passengers to travel on HS2 to St Pancras, where they could board the Eurostar.

But its then primary function – to allow passengers an uninterrupted journey onto the Eurostar and to the continent – was simply done away with.

It has been clear to people in Camden for many years that the real driver of the railway is nothing to do with connecting us with Europe, correcting the north-south divide, shaving minutes off journey times, increasing “capacity” or whatever the latest spin is.

The land around the stations has always been the driver and despite the latest government announcement who knows what will be there in 20 years time?