SEA CONTAINERS, the Bermuda-based transport group, is to warn ministers that the future of its GNER rail franchise must be determined before the company defaults on its debts in eight weeks.

The company may be forced to hand back the franchise, which operates London-to- Edinburgh rail services, if the Government refuses to renegotiate the contract.

Sea Containers is due to repay £60 million of its £340 million debt on October 14, but sources close to the company admit that this may not be possible. Bondholders could then press to liquidate the company.

This would throw the future of the GNER franchise into disarray and Sea Containers is urging the Department for Transport (DfT) to change the terms of its contract to prevent this scenario.

Sea Containers won back the GNER franchise, considered to be the most lucrative in the rail industry, last year. Its £1.3 billion offer for a ten-year contract was at least £300 million higher than any other bid and now the company has admitted that it paid too much.

It has also been plagued by problems with its ferry operations, which included Hoverspeed in the English Channel, Silja Line in the Baltic and SeaStreak in New York. To cut losses, the company has sold Silja and is seeking a buyer for SeaStreak. Hoverspeed has been put into voluntary liquidation.

The GNER franchise, which Sea Containers took over last May, has also disappointed. In the first 14 months of the contract, GNER’s passenger revenue rose by 3.3 per cent to $918 million, against projected growth of 9.9 per cent. Last year’s terrorist attacks in London and the rising price of electricity have been blamed for the shortfall. The company has said that it will cut costs on the line, but this may not be enough for GNER to turn a profit.

If Sea Containers were to walk away from the contract, it would lose a £15 million bond and the franchise would be run by the DfT until a new auction could be arranged. Analysts have said that new bidders would be unlikely to pay anywhere near the previous amounts. Sea Containers argues that the DfT would be better to renegotiate its contract and accept a small reduction in payments rather than risk another auction and get considerably less.

A spokeswoman for the DfT said: “The situation is very clear. Our stance is that we never renegotiate contracts.”

Bob MacKenzie, Sea Containers’ chief executive, will meet the company’s shareholders on Wednesday and bondholders on Thursday to discuss the future of the rail link.

A spokesman for Sea Containers said: “We will have to see what the discussions with our financial stakeholders lead to this week. It is far too early to predict what will happen in the medium term with the GNER franchise.”

Sea Containers is also considering an appeal against a recent court decision that backed the Office of Rail Regulation’s allocation of a new commercial service on the East Coast line.

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