LONDON — Out-of-pocket Railtrack shareholders said on Thursday they will take Britain to court after the government refused to release documents on its decision to force the country’s rail network operator into administration, a wire service reports.
“They have given us no option but to pursue the matter is the courts and this we will do,” said Simon Haslam, the chairman of the Railtrack Shareholders’ Action Group (RSAG), which represents 49 percent of the ordinary shares in Railtrack.
UK Transport Secretary Stephen Byers forced the operating subsidiary Railtrack Plc, the owner of 23,000 miles of track and 2,500 stations, into insolvency in October last year, tired of its pleas for cash and failure to deliver a reliable service.
He has also refused to bail out shareholders.
Despite winning the plaudits from his centre-left Labour colleagues, Byers has failed to capitalise on what should have been a popular decision by his refusal to bailout shareholders, alienating much of the financial community and sparking a string of newspaper reports calling for his resignation.
And Britain’s creaking railways are in chaos.
Strikes over wage disputes have disrupted thousands of commuters, a government minister said the country’s railways were the “worst in Europe,” a shortage of drivers causes delays and the infrastructure is ailing from years of underinvestment.
And Prime Minister Tony Blair has been forced on several occasions to defend the embattled Byers, the latest on Wednesday when he insisted the transport secretary remained in charge
Byers has proposed a not-for-profit company, underpinned by the government-directed regulator the Strategic Rail Authority, to run the network. The administrators from Ernst & Young are considering a range of financing proposals from banks.
Haslam, who is also a senior executive at fund manager Fidelity International, said the Byers’ transport ministry has consistently said that Byers’ actions were legal and proper.
“One would assume that the documents we have requested would prove this, but the fact that we will have to apply to the court to see them raises questions, ” he said in a statement. “I am forced to the conclusion that the government has something to hide.”