The length of time needed for new construction along the route depends principally on the presence of long tunnel's and the time needed to dig them and fit them out. Historically the project as developed from 1994 to 2004 by the company's engineers and project managers included a very long tunnel in the London area which would also need to be equipped with overhead electrification. Construction was then envisaged to take four to five years or more. However with the newer route alternatives now being developed there would be more but shorter tunnels and so construction could take four years or less.
Before that however there would have to be not less than two years, and probably rather more, spent preparing formal planning application materials and going through (ideally) Parliamentary procedures in the UK to pass a Bill approving the scheme, and equivalent administrative procedures on the Continent.
Least predictable of all is the length of time needed at the beginning of the process to build up enough confidence in the project in national railway authorities and commercial sectors to make parliamentarians and politicians willing to allow the project to move forward. It could well therefore be another ten years or more before the new system can be up and running, by which time many UK road and rail systems will be experiencing gridlock.
Below we set out the already lengthy history of the project. These timescales are not unusual for big ideas and big projects.
| 2006 | Central Railway recommences promotion of revised proposals for a diesel lorry-trailers-on-trains and double stack container railway from northern France and Belgium to the English Regions, Scotland and (via Liverpool's port) Ireland. Eurotunnel seeks the protection of the French Courts whilst it pursues a drastic capital reconstruction. |
|---|---|
| 2006 | The new Central Railway site goes live |
| 2004 - 2005 | SRA disbanded and its functions taken back into the DfT. |
| 2004 | Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Transport, eventually turns down Central Railway's request in 2000 for a hybrid Bill for the UK section of the railway. Eurotunnel Board warns of approaching insolvency and is fired by shareholders. |
| 2003 - 2004 | Technical and commercial discussions with Eurotunnel, which is now casting around for a strategy to increase through freight traffic. |
| 2003 | Department for Transport (DfT) does not uphold SRA complaints about Central Railway's impacts on the existing railway system. At Ministers' request, the company secures submissions from banks, contractors, venture capitalists, stockbrokers and monoline insurers confirming that Central Railway's proposals appear feasible and in principle capable of being financed in the capital markets. |
| 2002 | SNCF's chairman Louis Gallois signs memorandum of understanding with Central Railway. Second SRA review agrees that the project could attract 38% of the UK-Continent lorry market onto the railways - around three million lorries annually by 2015 but claims impacts on the existing railway system are unacceptable. |
| 2000 - 2001 | First Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) review of Central Railway finds significant potential transport benefits and "no showstoppers". |
| 2000 | Roland Berger reports reconfirm company's market and revenue case. Company asks for a hybrid Bill from the Government to approve UK section of Central Railway. |
| 1998 - 1999 | Central Railway develops extended northern France to Liverpool project with Parkman, Halcrow, Parsons and SYSTRA, including a bypass for London along the southwest quadrant of the M25 orbital motorway. |
| 1998 | Government agrees to underwrite the cost of the CTRL to St Pancras. |
| 1996 | Conservative government withdraws its earlier support for Central Railway's TWA application, which is defeated in the House of Commons. |
| 1995 | UK Government invites Central Railway to submit TWA application for the UK section of the scheme between the Channel Tunnel and Leicester. Central Railway issues prospectus to fund first stage application for UK planning permission under the TWA and raises initial equity finance. |
| 1995 | Government agrees to lend political support for a privately funded passenger high-speed link - the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) - to St Pancras, London. |
| 1994 - 1998 | Eurotunnel lobbies for passenger high-speed link to London as the solution for its revenue shortfall, and so turns away from Central Railway's freight proposals. |
| 1994 | The Channel Tunnel opens and its lorry shuttle is a success in terms of exceeding the tonnage of goods stated in Eurotunnel's prospectuses. In contrast, international passenger traffic is only a quarter of the amount predicted. |
| 1993 | Central Railway secures UK Government agreement that its project will not be put out to tender or made into a concession providing it does not seek public funds. |
| 1992 - 1993 | Mott MacDonald develops Central Railway's first proposal for an electrified lorries-on-trains railway from Lille to Leicester via south London. |
| 1992 | Government replaces private Bills, the method used historically and successfully to approve railways and public works in the UK, with the unsuccessful Transport & Works Act (TWA)1992 public inquiry-based procedure. |
| 1991 - 1992 | First comprehensive market research studies on UK-Continental lorry market carried out with Eurotunnel and then SNCF. |
| 1991 | Formation of Central Railway Group Ltd by Andrew Gritten and Alan Stevens. |