Central Railway (UK)

The company argued that such a line could significantly cut road congestion by carrying lorries on flatbed rail trucks.

The plans were rejected by the government in 1996 and again in 2003, largely because of doubts over financing its £8 billion cost, even though it was a private-sector project.

At a rebuilt Ashendon Junction it would have joined the Chiltern Main Line, running alongside it on new tracks, then paralleling the M25 motorway, entering a new tunnel between Leatherhead and Merstham and then running alongside existing railways via Tonbridge to the Channel Tunnel terminal at Folkestone.

[1] An alternative route would have seen the line joining High Speed 1 to the tunnel, if the latter railway were to allow non-passenger trains.

Trains 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) long would carry up to 80 lorry trailers each, in the manner of American piggyback services.