Central Railway chairman Andrew Gritten said: “We believe that a significant
opportunity has been missed to boost economic regeneration in the North of
England and considerably reduce road traffic in the South East.

"This has been a long haul, and all credit is due to the dedication of our
shareholders and our many other supporters, to my board colleagues and the
management team".

The Company will shortly be writing to its shareholders, giving them more
detail than has hitherto been possible of the course of discussions with
Government.

In particular, the Company believes that shareholders are entitled to know that
it was only early last year - after it had been agreed that there were no
technical issues incapable of satisfactory resolution – that the Government
first asked for assurance that the project could be financed without
Government subsidy.

The Company immediately made clear that letters of support were the most
that could be obtained, in advance of a Government decision in principle. The
Company understood that Government accepted that committed finance was
wholly unrealistic at this stage in the project.

As a result, the Government was supplied with letters from leading financial
institutions, including some of the world’s largest banks, confirming the
Company’s view that the project would be financeable.

Unfortunately, it now appears that the Government does not want to run the
risk that it would be unable to resist pressure to intervene, should the project
run into financial difficulty.