Bell tolls for Eurotunnel
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• Eurotunnel, the AngloFrench Channel tunnel consortium, has warned that the whole project may collapse unless British Rail and SNCF, the French state-owned railways, can reach an agreement with them over tolls and usage by the end of this month.
British Rail says an agreement had been signed last September and that it looks as if Eurotunnel is trying to alter the agreement to its own advantage. Alastair Morton, joint chairman of Eurotunnel, claims that Eurotunnel will not be able to raise the necessary bank loans unless it achieves a legally-binding agreement with BR and SNCP soon. "Substantial differences between the railways and Eurotunnel remain," says Morton.
Eurotunnel suffered yet another setback earlier this week when it had to postpone until the autumn its £750 mil
lion fund-raising exercise that was scheduled for July.
The summer stock market flotation is to be replaced with a smaller private share issue among Eurotunnel's existing shareholders. This is hoped to tide the project over until the autumn.