Railtrack 'cover-up'

Clayton Hirst
Sunday 30 June 2002 00:00 BST
Comments

Railtrack's private shareholders have accused the Government of "gagging" the company's board and staging a "cover-up" to prevent the disclosure of sensitive documents surrounding its demise.

The Railtrack Private Shareholders Action Group (RPSAG) claimed the £500m offer to buy Railtrack will stop information relating to former Transport Secretary Stephen Byers' decision to put the company into administration seeing the light of day.

A condition of the offer from the government-backed Network Rail was that Railtrack Group would drop legal action and not pass on certain documents to shareholders.

Andrew Chalklen, chairman of RPSAG, representing 22,000 members, said: "This gagging agreement indicates clearly that the Government has something to hide and that the company has material that will embarrass the Department of Transport. This is a disgraceful act intended to cover up its wrongdoing."

On Thursday, Railtrack agreed terms for the buyout that could see investors receiving 244p to 255p a share. If shareholders accept the offer at a meeting next month they still retain their rights to take legal action against the Government.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in