Metronet, the consortium which took over two-thirds of the London Underground, has made a £50m profit in its first full year of operations.

A SENIOR railway engineer's alleged gross act of negligence was blamed yesterday for contributing to the October 2000 Hatfield rail crash in which four people died.

A senior railway engineer's alleged gross act of negligence was yesterday blamed for contributing to the October 2000 Hatfield rail disaster in which four people died.

RAIL COMPANIES knew nearly two years before the Hatfield train disaster that the rail which caused the crash was defective, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

From being a barometer of pain in the financial services industry, Reuters these days has acquired the habit of pleasantly surprising investors. So it was yesterday with the financial news and information giant's first-quarter guidance.

Mike Welton announced his retirement as the chief executive of Balfour Beatty yesterday as the engineering and construction company reported a 33 per cent jump in profits.

Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien will lead a trade mission to Libya next month following Tony Blair's historic meeting last week with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

THE BRITISH Government is to grant export credit to a highly controversial proposed hydro-electric dam in Turkey, provided certain social and environmental conditions are met.

STEPHEN BYERS, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, was embroiled in fresh controversy over British funding of Turkey's Ilisu Dam yesterday when it emerged he had been highly critical of a department he now heads for its involvement in similar schemes.

BICC, WHICH issued a trading statement yesterday, is a changed animal. It has sold its loss-making cables business and from January will emerge as a pure construction and engineering group. It will take on the name of its construction arm, Balfour Beatty, to reflect the new concentration of the company.

EVER fancied owning your own road? Well, now you may get your chance. Thanks to the financial problems of Philipp Holzmann, two of Britain's first private trunk roads - the A50 and the A30/A35 - are all set to be put on sale.

BODYCOTE INTERNATIONAL, the metals group which hinted in March that its markets might be showing a glimmer of recovery, disappointed the City yesterday with news that the much-needed upturn had failed to materialise.