A PRIVATE railway company wants to build a cross channel rail link between the North-west and France.

And the development chief believes that if it gets the go ahead it will provide a major jobs boost for Bolton.

Central Railway, based in London, has asked Greater Manchester's Passenger Transport Executive to support the ambitious plan.

The railway line, initially for freight traffic, would cost about £3.25 BILLION to build, but with interest charges, the final bill is expected to be about £5 billion.

But if it is given the go ahead, it would speed up commercial haulage travel to Europe via the Channel Tunnel, opening up new markets for local firms and creating jobs.

It would link Lille in Northern France to Liverpool and the aim is to take haulage traffic off the motorway network.

There would be points locally along the route where firms could drive wagons to and then offload cargo on to the train.

Cargo could also be shipped from Liverpool across the Atlantic to either Ireland or the United States.

While it is primarily a freight rail scheme, Central Railway has not ruled out extending it to passenger traffic.

Central Railway has been set up by a group of businessmen specifically for the project. It currently has about 100 consultants working on the plan.

Development director Robert Raffety said the project would be funded by "the global capital market" with no cost to the public purse.

It would involve building a new railway line taking the route from London to Sheffield and then cutting across to Manchester.

This would need approval from Parliament and there is likely to be a public inquiry into the route.

But Central Railway is aiming for work to start by 2000 or 2001 and be finished by 2006 or 2007.

Mr Raffety expected the project to create around 12,000 jobs nationwide.

Quicker

He said: "It would completely regenerate the economy of the North-west and be a major job creator for a town like Bolton.

"It would not only make it much quicker for a Bolton company to reach somewhere like Milan, it would also make it much more attractive for inward investment from European companies."

A report will be presented to the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities on Tuesday and councillors will be asked to support the scheme in principle, but they will be asking Central Railway for more information before coming to a decision.

Bolton Cllr Peter Johnston works for the GMPTE and he is the officer looking into the plan.

He said: "It is an interesting idea, but there are a lot of problems with it - not least the route and how it would get round Manchester.

"We are saying that it is an interesting idea, but we need to know much more - particularly about funding and how it would affect the environment - before we take it any further."

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