CENTRAL Railway believes its financial backers will not be put off by a US company pulling out of a troubled freight company.

Wisconsin Central Transportation owns 42 per cent of English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS), the largest rail-freight company in Britain. But it wants out of the company, saying there is little future for it in UK rail freight.

Central Railway is proposing to build a lorries-on-trains railway, which will use the Chiltern Line.

But a spokesman for Central Railway said said: "It's a totally different thing. EWS have not proposed anything like Central Railway.

"They run freight; we're proposing lorries in trains."

Central Railway prefers to view its proposed line as a unique European link, enabling lorries to be transported from Liverpool to the continent in an efficient and environmentally-friendly way.