The horror story of HS2

“It’s not ideal,” says James Richardson, a tunnelling engineer at Old Oak Common station in west London. He is standing in a vast hole: almost a kilometre long, 70 metres wide, 20 metres deep. Some 2,000 people are working at the site: by the early 2030s Old Oak Common should be one of the largest stations in Europe, with six underground platforms for high-speed trains whizzing in and out of London. But Mr Richardson isn’t sure where to dig next..