Failure of rail link plea 'to cost millions'

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link faces massive delays costing tens of millions of pounds because the builders have been refused permission to work round the clock for the next two years.

The £5.2billion project is subject to construction laws which limit work to 8am-6pm Monday to Fridays and 8am-1pm on Saturdays.

But the developers, Union Railways, say that without massive extensions the CTRL would not meet critical dates in 2004 and would not be completed on time - by the end of 2006.

CTRL has claimed the delays would cost it £50million, plus another £1million a week. Its application for round-the-clock working was rejected by Camden Council in December after concern for hundreds of residents near the main St Pancras worksites. But after a hearing in January, a government inspector rejected the CTRL's appeal.