Britain’s troubled privatised rail infrastructure company, Railtrack, last night finally collapsed after the government refused to hand over any more state subsidy.
On Sunday the High Court in London appointed Ernst & Young, the accountants, as administrators for Railtrack after the company accepted it could no longer pay its bills.
Read MoreShares in Railtrack, Britain’s troubled privatised rail infrastructure company, were suspended on Monday after the High Court in London on Sunday appointed Ernst & Young, the accountants, as administrators when the company accepted it could no longer pay its bills.
But the board issued a feisty statement saying Railtrack and the government had been in negotiations about funding from June, when John Robinson was appointed chairman, until the end of last week, “with no indication from the government that it intended to take the actions which have now transpired”.
Railtrack “reluctantly accepted that there was no credible alternative to administration”, said the statement.
Read MoreLONDON (AFX) – Consignia, formerly the UK Post Office, has rejected a newspaper report claiming that the government plans to split the company into two under a radical restructuring plan, a Consignia spokeswoman said.
“We’re not splitting into two… The structure of the company will remain,” she said.
Read MorePOSTAL union CWU dismissed Consignia’s decision to axe over 15,000 jobs yesterday as a “madcap” scheme.
CWU deputy general secretary John Keggie said that the government “must ask how a business that was in profitability for 20 years before commercial freedom was granted is now in such a financial mess.”
Consignia admitted the job cuts in an internal briefing sent to managers.
The company argued that the business was moving into loss and that there must be cost cutting over the next 18 months to create a much leaner operation.
The briefing stated: “We want to take out 15 per cent of our cost base, which equals £1.2 billion.
“This means reducing our employee and non-employee costs by 15 per cent. We must do this by March 2003.”
Read MoreThe value of the UK express market will increase by 3% to reach £2.6bn(€4.3bn) in 2001, slightly lower than a projected 4% growth rate to 788m packages. The disparity is due to continued price competition and higher value deliveries in the international sector, says MSI in a new market report.
On domestic deliveries, average revenue per parcel has declined throughout the last 10 years, and will fall by a further 3% this year.
The international sector has consistently outgrown the domestic market through the review period and will grow by 10% to 60.3m packages in 2001. The value increase will be 8% to £1bn (€1.7bn). International deliveries are expected to account for 8% of the total market by volume, but 39% by value.
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