On 3 October, London & Continental Railways (LCR) completed its acquisition of Railtrack UK’s entire share capital from the Railtrack Group, for US$583M.
Railtrack UK is the holding company for the Railtrack Group’s interests in the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), and is contractually committed to purchase Section 1 of CTRL on its completion.
Railtrack also holds the right to operate CTRL and the concession to manage St Pancras international station in North London. LCR has agreed to sell these rights to Network Rail for US$124.4M. Network Rail is the not-for-profit company set up by the Government to run the UK’s rail infrastructure following its acquisition of Railtrack plc in September.
CTRL is Britain’s first high speed railway, which will connect the Channel Tunnel on the south coast, to London St Pancras. It consists of over 25km of tunnels, and its construction will eventually cost approximately US$8.1bn.
“We are of course delighted that the construction of the CTRL infrastructure is now back under unified management and ownership,” Bob Holden, chief executive of LCR, said. “Network Rail… will have a crucial role in the successful completion of Section 1 as they take control of the final commissioning stages of the project next summer.”
