The politics of infrastructural reversibility: no-regret futures at the London Euston highspeed railway station

Journal article

Large infrastructure projects are difficult for publics to challenge, scrutinise, or engage with. A well-researched barrier to public engagement is the technical complexity of large projects, whether it be materially present, or discursively constructed by professional experts. However, the multiple temporalities of large infrastructure projects can also hinder public scrutiny and opposition. In this commentary, I explore the reversibility of large infrastructure projects, using the example of the London Euston station expansion. This large project was launched in 2017 with the aim of preparing the central London railway station for high-speed services. It has since been repeatedly paused, redesigned, and cancelled. Drawing on the London Euston case and theorisations of reversibility as the political act of extending the duration of the present, I discuss how reversibility was evoked and ‘made real’, and the challenges its ambiguity has presented in terms of public engagement. I end with the possibilities presented by the notion of infrastructural regrets and other emotional engagements with infrastructure in constructing just and inclusive urban futures.

Authors: Plyushteva, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Geographical Journal
• Article number: e70066
• Publication date: 2026-02-03
• Acceptance date: 2026-01-16
• DOI: 10.1111/geoj.70066
• EISSN: 1475-4959
• ISSN: 0016-7398
• Language: English