Central Railway is a private company formed solely to promote the development of an effective European rail freight route system in Britain and the near Continent. It has over 400 shareholders, including a few large firms. We estimate that, including corporate supporters spending their own resources, the project has cost around £15m to develop - which in private sector terms is a lot of capital to risk at this early stage of the project.
The company resembles a typical project development team formed to plan a major capital project in, for example, the oil and gas sector. However, in contrast to North America, Europe does not have large commercial rail freight corporations who would otherwise be promoting developments like Central Railway's scheme. In Europe rail freight has dwindled to become a small sector of the economy - unlike in North America where it is huge.
Clearly neither Central Railway nor any other big company can pay for a project of this size. But we do assume that governments still want to see it funded entirely or in large part by the private sectors - and that means funded by issuing shares, bonds etc in the international capital markets.
Central Railway's role is therefore to coordinate the technical and commercial development of the project with the track owning organisations in each country and to draw in private sector skills, resources and capital as they are needed. In 2003, at the UK Goverment's request, the company succeeded in securing letters from several well-known financial institutions and companies indicating that the construction of the project appeared feasible and capable of being financed. This suggests that the company's strategy is on target.
Central Railway Limited is registered in England no. 2924763 at 2 Lamb's Passage, London EC1Y 8BB.