Germany’s state-owned railway company is seeking permission to run passenger trains through the Channel Tunnel in direct competition with Eurostar.

The plan may require the strict safety rules governing the tunnel to be weakened because German high-speed trains do not meet all the existing requirements.

Eurotunnel, the debt-ridden company which owns the tunnel, is understood to be encouraging the German bid because it is keen to see greater competition and more traffic.

Deutsche Bahn’s plan could result in direct trains from London to Cologne in only four hours and to Frankfurt in less than five. German ICE high-speed trains began running into Paris this summer and Deutsche Bahn is keen to extend its network to Britain. The Channel Tunnel Inter-governmental Commission is believed to be willing to consider amending the safety rules because 13 years of operation have shown that they may be overprescriptive.

At present, passenger trains using the tunnel have to be capable of being divided in two in the case of a fire. The safety rules also require operators to use a special locomotive capable of coping with the signals and power supply on both sides of the Channel. Under European Union open access rules for railways, the £5.7 billion High Speed One, due to open in a fortnight between the Channel Tunnel and St Pancras, has been built to accommodate trains from across Europe.

Deutsche Bahn recently acquired EWS, Britain’s biggest freight train company, which operates up to four services a day through the Channel Tunnel. The German operator is likely to face fierce opposition to its plan from Eurostar, which has capitalised on improvements in journey time and reliability in order to raise the average fare. Passengers who are unable to book several weeks in advance typically have to pay about £300 for an economy class return fare to Paris.

Eurostar has failed to deliver the passenger numbers originally promised when High Speed One was approved a decade ago. It carried 8 million passengers last year when, under the original estimate, it should have carried 20 million. The 70-mile line has the capacity for 20 trains an hour in each direction but will be used by only 3 an hour, at least until 2010.

A Eurotunnel spokesman, asked whether the company would support a German bid, said: “We have to be very careful because we have a very good relationship with Eurostar. I can’t really answer that at this stage.”

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