HS2 is facing a fresh bill of more than £300m in compensation for the disruption caused to other train services during its construction, i can reveal.
Passengers will face closures on the Great Western Railway line into
London each Christmas until 2030 due to work being carried out on the new superhub at Old Oak Common in the west of the capital, it emerged this week.
The most significant disruption will hit Paddington with no trains running in or out of the station on several dates in November and December, with some GWR services diverted to London Euston instead.
Until now, HS2 building work has had little knock-on effect on the existing rail network because the focus has been on construction of the new line between London and Birmingham.
But the next phase of works at Old Oak Common in west London will see disruption that extends from west London into South West England and Wales.
Train companies are entitled to compensation via two regimes administrated by Network Rail – “Schedule 4” for planned disruption and “Schedule 8” for unplanned disruption.
An HS2 report from 2012 obtained by i estimated that costs for “possession management, compensation for operational disruption” would be £190m (£317m adjusted for inflation) for Phase One.