London & Continental Railways (LCR) is a railway company based in the United Kingdom.

Contents 1 History 2 2006 shareholders & status 3 2009 Restructure 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

Created at the time of the Privatisation of British Rail it bid for and won the contract from the UK government in 1996 to build and operate High Speed 1 between London and the Channel Tunnel. As part of this deal the European Passenger Services (EPS) and Union Railways sections of British Rail were handed over to LCR as well as key pieces of railway infrastructure including St Pancras railway station and Manchester International & North Pole depots.

EPS was the British arm of the joint Eurostar operation, along with SNCF and NMBS/SNCB. LCR renamed EPS as Eurostar (U.K.) Ltd. (EUKL). Union Railways had been developing plans for HS1 since before the opening of the Channel Tunnel and continued this role as part of LCR.

The original shareholders of LCR were National Express Group, Virgin Group, SBC Warburg, Bechtel and London Electric. As part of the 1996 contract LCR were to finance and construct the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) themselves, funding it from income received from the Eurostar operation.

In 1998 LCR ran into major financial difficulties and appealed to the UK government for support. It admitted that income from its share of the Eurostar operation was not at the level it expected and would therefore not be able to undertake construction of HS1. At this time the future of the high speed line looked in doubt. See here for more details.

In 2006 LCR put forward a proposal to build a domestic high speed line north of London — see High-speed rail in the United Kingdom.

[edit] 2006 shareholders & status

The structure of LCR is complex due to numerous reorganisations, for example SNCF is involved in the Eurostar operation at three different levels. shareholders in LCR in 2006 were:

• Rail Link Engineering (RLE)
• National Express Group
• SNCF
• EDF Energy
• UBS investment bank

The construction of the CTRL/High Speed 1 was project managed for LCR by RLE. Shareholders in RLE were:

• Bechtel
• Arup
• Systra
• Halcrow

Since the 1998 reorganisation the operation of EUKL has run as under a management contract, expiring in 2010, by InterCapital and Regional Rail (ICRR). ICRR shareholders are:

• National Express Group (40%)
• SNCF (35%)
• NMBS/SNCB (15%)
• British Airways (10%)

Operation of the line is undertaken by Network Rail under a contract lasting until 2086, when LCR's concession ends too, and all rights return to the British Government.

This structure will change as per the announcement made in June 2009.

[edit] 2009 Restructure

In June 2009 the Department for Transport announced that the UK Government would takeover sole ownership of LCR in the near future. This is part of a process to break up the current structure and sell off the separate parts as individual companies thereby removing LCR's monopoly of cross channel passenger rail services and attempting to re-coup some of the large amounts of government money paid to LCR since 1998. With the track and stations in separate ownership competiting services may begin. This is a similar model as is used in the rest of Great Britain and across the EU as per European Union directive 91/440, maintenance is likely to continue to be contracted to Network Rail. Deutsche Bahn have already stated their wish to run services from Germany to London and the LCR share in the Eurostar operation is expected to be bought by SNCF, giving the French national rail company the dominant role in the operation. Following this restructure LCR will become simply a property development company with sole rights to the land north of St Pancras station.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• London & Continental Railways Homepage