RAILTRACK was today standing by to rescue the £5 billion Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link.

The link's builder, London and Continental, has run into funding difficulties and has been refused any more Government money.

"We are examining the business case for becoming involved in the link," said a spokeswoman for Railtrack, which runs the track, stations and signalling on Britain's railways.

She added: "Our board has been looking at the figures. We have to do what's best for our business and our shareholders."

The 68-mile link from St Pancras in London to the tunnel at Folkestone is in doubt after last night's Commons announcement by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott that he had rejected London and Continental's request for a further £1.2 billion of public money.

London and Continental, which also runs the tunnel's high-speed Eurostar trains to Paris and Brussels, now has 30 days to find a source for the cash it needs.

Should it fail to do so, the Eurostar business would revert back to the public sector.

Mr Prescott said today that the Government "could not afford" to add to the £1.8 billion of Government money already promised.

He said he was now waiting for the company to reconsider the project to see whether it could come up with an alternative proposal.

York MP Hugh Bayley said today's news means a fast rail link between York and the Continent looked even more unlikely.

Mr Bayley has asked Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott for reassurances that 1.8 billion of taxpayers' money already committed to the project would provide returns for the British people in the form of rail links to the rest of the country.

"He could not guarantee that this would be the case. It is probably fair to say that the LCR crisis leaves Yorkshire further away than ever from a through service."

He added: "I will still argue for the through services which we were promised and I will press for linking services to the north to ensure passengers travelling through the Channel Tunnel do not have a difficult interchange."

A spokesman for Eurostar said it was unclear how the future of York's link would be affected by current talks.

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