London and Continental Railways (LCR) is a property development company owned by the Government of the United Kingdom for developing former railway land. The company was originally established in 1994 as a private consortium to own European Passenger Services and build the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) under a contract agreed with the government. After the full length of the CTRL was opened and rebranded as High Speed 1 (HS1) in late 2007, the company subsequently ran into financial difficulties and was nationalised in June 2009. History Creation LCR was established in 1994 during the privatisation of British Rail. LCR bid for and won the contract from the UK government in 1996 to build and operate the Channel Tunnel Rail Link between London and the Channel Tunnel, under the terms of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996. As part of this deal European Passenger Services (EPS) and Union Railways, companies owned by British Rail, were transferred to LCR ownership, as well as key pieces of railway infrastructure including St Pancras railway station and the King's Cross Central lands nearby. EPS was the British arm of the joint Eurostar operation, along with SNCF in France and SNCB in Belgium. LCR renamed EPS as Eurostar (UK) Ltd (EUKL). Union Railways had been developing plans for the CTRL since before the opening of the Channel Tunnel and became the construction company of the CTRL under the ownership of LCR. The original shareholders of LCR were Bechtel (19%), Warburg (19%), Virgin Group (18%), National Express (17.5%), SNCF (8.5%), London Electricity (8.5%), Arup (3.5%), Halcrow (3%) and Systra (3%). As part of the 1996 contract, LCR was to finance and construct the CTRL itself, funding the project from income received from the Eurostar operation. LCR also planned to raise additional capital from a partial stock market flotation once the project was underway. Financial problems In January 1998, LCR ran into major financial difficulties after finding that income from its share of the Eurostar operation was not at the level it expected. It blamed the lower level of passenger growth on disruption caused by a November 1996 fire in the Channel Tunnel and the growth of competing low-cost airlines. LCR's planned flotation, which had already been delayed, was aborted. With the entire CTRL project in doubt, LCR appealed to the British government for help. Government support To enable the project to continue, LCR was allowed