1. In 1984, an Anglo-French consortium, Eurotunnel, received the concession to build and operate the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France. Financed by the private sector, it opened ten years later. Besides carrying a shuttle service between terminals at each end for road vehicles and their passengers, the Tunnel also provides for through passenger and freight rail services. From November 1994, passenger services were operated jointly by European Passenger Services Ltd (EPSL), SNCF and SNCB (the state-owned railways of France and Belgium respectively) with routes from London (Waterloo) to Paris and Brussels. Freight services through the Channel Tunnel are operated by Railfreight Distribution17, which is owned by English, Welsh & Scottish Railways.
2. British Rail (and subsequently Railtrack) as well as the train operators invested a total of £1,500 million in infrastructure works and rolling stock to accommodate these additional passenger and freight services. However, the Department of Transport's "Kent Impact Study" in 1987 recognised the need for extra rail capacity in the South East and in 1988, following a British Rail study, tenders were invited for the design and construction of a new rail link from the Channel Tunnel to London.
3. Eurorail, a consortium comprising Trafalgar House and BICC, was awarded the concession as part of a joint venture with British Rail. The route it promoted approached London from the South East, broadly following the M20/A20 corridor as far as Hither Green. From there, a tunnelling scheme was to provide access to both Waterloo and a terminus proposed in the King's Cross area. By the middle of 1991, however, the Government considered that the proposed route would not realise the full potential of the international connection for London, nor provide any significant regeneration benefits. Furthermore, the route would have had a considerable environmental impact on south-east London. In October 1991, the Government announced that an approach to London from the east was preferred. The northern half of the British Rail/Eurorail route was abandoned in favour of a Thames crossing of some kind in the Dartford area and then an approach roughly along the A13 corridor before entering tunnelling to terminate, again, around King's Cross.
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17 Now called EWS International