RAILTRACK did not work. It was a company cobbled together with indecent haste to serve the flawed ideology of the last Tory Government. Its two main roles, to provide a safe and efficient rail network and to maximise profits for shareholders, conflicted - with catastrophic results.

Most passengers wanted to see it replaced by a not-for-profit organisation that put their safety and needs first.

Then, in October, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers decided to do just that. He refused the company any more Government cash, prompting its collapse.

It should have been a new dawn for the industry. But in the intervening weeks, the way Mr Byers pulled the plug on Railtrack has come in for increasing condemnation. The main criticism is eerily familiar: were these actions cobbled together with indecent haste to serve the flawed ideology of the Transport Secretary?

Few had any sympathy with the financial fat cats who squealed at Mr Byers' decision. After all, taxpayers have been subsidising shareholders ever since Railtrack came into being.

But that is to forget the 250,000 small shareholders, many of them Railtrack employees, many of them whose life-savings, invested in the stocks, were suddenly worthless.

Today, their righteous anger will turn to fury. Railtrack, it was announced, made £292 million profit in the six months to September, suggesting the company was far from bankrupt when it was forced into administration.

This will put extra pressure on Mr Byers. He is right to say that the Government's role is not to fund shareholders of private companies, or bail out a company that cannot control its costs. But by derailing Railtrack with such brutality, he has undermined that case.

Even as late as the mid-Nineties, New Labour was insisting it would nationalise Railtrack if it came to power. This would have cost more money than Mr Byers' approach, but it would have been fair to the shareholders.

And, by allowing a carefully-planned transition to a non-profit making company, it would have been far better for the travelling public.

Updated: 10:50 Tuesday, December 18, 2001