A NEW report that appears to have hammered the final nail in the coffin of direct train services from the North West through the Channel Tunnel to Paris and Brussels has been condemned by East Lancashire MPs.

Consultants ADL have told the government it is not worth setting up the long-promised rail link and suggest that instead the rolling stock earmarked for the services should be used to improve operations on the west and east coast main lines.

Transport Minister Keith Hill did not give a final decision on the future of the proposals but clearly indicated the way the government was thinking by authorising the use of two of the special trains on the east coast main line.

They will run on a shuttle service between York and London Kings Cross to link to the cross-channel services.

ADL says regional services, including ones to Manchester and the North West, would run at a loss and require subsidy. While there might be other social, environmental or other non-financial benefits from such a service, they would be "too small to compensate for failure to make a profit".

The new Strategic Rail Authority and the British Railways Board will now consider the report but few at Westminster now have any doubt that direct regional Channel Tunnel rail services are a dead duck.

Pendle MP Gordon Prentice, who served on the special Commons committee which considered the route through Kent of the Channel Tunnel rail link, was dismayed.

He said: "This will be a major blow. We were promised direct services and now it appears we are not to get them.

"The Channel Tunnel was supposed to benefit the whole country, not just the South East."

Ribble Valley Tory MP Nigel Evans said: "I am very disappointed. It is another let-down for the people of the North West and a further example of the north-south divide."

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