The government's desire to cut public debt could result in foreign control of  a prime piece of the UK's rail infrastructure as ministers start the sale of the High Speed One rail link this week (21 June 2010). France's Groupe Eurotunnel and Australia's Macquarie bank are two of the companies expectes to make bids.

The auction of the right to operate the only high speed rail line in the UK, London's St Pancras International to the Channel tunnel, will be launched this week and will be included in Tuesday's budget.

Louise Ellman MP, chair of the transport select committee, said: "These are strategic assets and they are very important for the national and international rail network. We should be concerned about the long-term implications of this type of sell-off."

Philip Hammond, the transport secretary, said: "High Speed One is a national success story and a world class railway operating to international standards. The money generated by this sale will make an early significant contribution to the crucial task of reducing the public sector debt."

The winning bidder will probally have to pay at least £1.5bn. to secure a 30-year concession to operate the rail route and its stations. Network Rail is at present the only UK-based bidder to express an interest.However, it has it's own debt burden and owes £23.8bn, which makes the company more likely to consider a consortium approach. Network Rail's 5 year budget has been set until 2014, which means any additional fundraising may have to be covered by further taxpayer-backed debt.

This month, the outgoing chief executive of Network Rail, Iain Coucher, expressed interest in joining a group bid. "It is something we could do. We would like to be involved in high speed rail in some form." Network Rail operates and maintains High Speed One and has pledged to do "everything we can to assist in the sale process".

The sale of High Speed One, which cost £5.8bn to build, will include the magnificent St Pancras International station in London and stations at Stratford, Ashford and Ebbsfleet, and the 68-mile route. Its main source of income is the track access charges paid by Eurostar, which operates services between London, Paris and Brussels and Southeastern, which runs the UK's only high-speed commuter service. St Pancras has made it's mark as a retail outlet and earned more than £10m last year.

High Speed One is owned by London and Continental Railways which is in turn 100% controlled by the Department for Transport.

Eurotunnel is expected to bid with the Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners investment fund, and M&G, a fund manager. UBS is representing LCR and the DfT has retained Citibank as its adviser.

The remaining assets in London and Continental Railways are a 40% stake in Eurostar, High Speed One's biggest customer, and large land holdings at King's Cross and Stratford in London.