Chunnel row looms
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• Transport secretary Cecil Parkinson is set to spark a new political row this week over cash aid for the Channel Tunnel rail link.
British Rail wants millions of pounds of tax payers' money to help finance the 2.3bn project for a high-speed rail link between Folkestone and London. The link is needed to plug Britain into the fast pan-European rail network if BR is to boost passenger and fast freight services when the Channel Tunnel opens in 1993.
There would be an obvious impact on road haulage, with fewer trucks needed to haul loads from the UK tunnel terminal. The Cabinet looks set to reject the cash call, with Parkinson claiming that subsidies are illegal under the tunnel legislation.
He and the Chancellor, John Major, are also concerned that a commitment to help finance the fast rail link would be too open-ended, with the Government providing a blank cheque for cost overruns which are expected before the proposed rail link is due to open in the late 1990s.
MPs expect Parkinson to call on BR to consider alternative options for fast rail services. Such a decision would be welcomed by Tory MPs in Kent who have opposed the new link on environmental grounds in the run up to a general election.
But it would anger politicians from other parts of the country who believe that Britain's regions are being left out of the development of a pan-European transport infrastructure.