The announcement follows the sale of a 30-year concession on the High Speed One rail route for £2.1bn last year.
We have to build a new railway… …and the choice is between another old-style Victorian one – or a high speed one.
The Canadian pension funds are adding High Speed One, as the Channel tunnel rail link is officially known, to a list of UK investments.
For instance, a concession to run the government-underwritten High Speed One rail line has just been sold to a consortium of Canadian investors for £2.1bn.
We have completed the country's first high-speed rail line, High Speed One, and we are preparing the way for a north-south high-speed line with the establishment of the High Speed Two Company.
The £2.1bn sale of the High Speed One rail route between St Pancras and the Channel tunnel faces scrutiny after it emerged that the highest bidder did not win the keenly fought auction.
Greenpeace also welcomed the plans for the green bank, which is expected to be funded with £1bn raised by the government sale of state assets such as the High Speed One rail link and the Student Loans book.
"Even worse, the sale of High Speed One could pave the way for the busting up and selling off of Network Rail in a lethal re-run of the Railtrack disaster.
Cross-channel rail passengers will soon be able to travel on a competitor to Eurostar after the government promised to open up the High Speed One line to a new operator.
The Department for Transport is expected to break up LCR and sell the High Speed One route, with the expectation that the buyer will open up the line to new operators to maximise revenues.
High Speed One, which owns the assets of the Channel tunnel rail link, has announced that footfall at St Pancras International was 40m last year, up by 10% on the previous year.
