Mr Bronfman’s pledge not to sell applied only to his 3 per cent, and not to the rest of the family holding, a spokesman said.. Railtrack’s battered reputation sustained another major blow yesterday when it was revealed that the company had allowed trains to run on the network which risked bumping into platforms. Railtrack has taken much of the blame over the past year for long delays to the introduction of new trains.Alstom complained to the regulator that a lack of information from Railtrack meant that the new class 175 diesel trains it provided for First North Western were, in effect, too wide for platforms. Alstom has had to make alterations to the suspension to try to overcome the problemBombardier, which also builds trains, found similar problems with the class 375 rolling stock it supplied to Connex South Eastern. An additional difficulty was that Railtrack did not point out that the “third rail” on this part of the network was unable to supply the additional power required by the trains. In his announcement yesterday Mr Winsor said there were “serious deficiencies” in the data supplied to the train manufacturers by the infrastructure company.The regulator ordered Railtrack to introduce more efficient procedures to provide better information to companies such as Alstom and Bombardier.Mr Winsor said Railtrack should begin “the process of compliance” immediately and have the procedures fully in place by 1 October next year.He added: “Good information about the network is vital to the efficient design and approval of new rolling stock.”.

Stagecoach fired the head of Coach USA yesterday and took the axe to the remainder of the workforce at its ailing American bus and taxi business, announcing almost 600 job losses. A further 550 non-driving staff are being made redundant along with 35 employees at Coach USA’s head office in Houston, which is being reduced in size by 40 per cent.Stagecoach also announced the mothballing of 330 coaches and the complete withdrawal from some US routes as part of a $25m cost-saving drive. Stagecoach shares rose 14 per cent to 75p as analysts reacted favourably to the sweeping cutbacks in the US and a better-than-expected set of interim figures. The cutbacks follow a sharp decline in Coach USA’s performance in the wake of 11 September.

Profits at its core coach and bus division, which includes commuter buses and sightseeing and airport coaches, were $18m below expectations in September and October. For the six months to the end of October, Coach USA’s operating profits fell by 26 per cent to £37m.The restructuring is costing a total of £22.6m in charges and has resulted in an 18 per cent reduction in half-year, pre-tax profits before goodwill to £75m. The cost of the redundancies, including Mr West’s pay-off, will be £3.2m.Stagecoach, which is led by chairman, Brian Souter, has written down the value of the 330 mothballed coaches to zero, resulting in a £9.6m charge. It has also decided to close or sell a number of other US businesses, including the Atlanta airport shuttle operation, giving rise to a further one-off charge of £9.8m.Operating profits from the South West Trains franchise fell by £3.5m to £20.8m but operating profits from Stagecoach’s 49 per cent stake in Virgin Rail rose from £7.6m to £8.4m before exceptional items.Margins in the UK bus operations fell marginally because of inflation-busting pay awards to drivers resulting in a slight reduction in operating profits to £35.7m..

Compensation payments by Railtrack to the train operating companies have rocketed since Stephen Byers, the Secretary of State for Transport, forced the infrastructure company into administration two months ago. The administrators initially calculated they would need £450m but now think the figure will be nearer £1bn.In the six months to the end of October, Railtrack paid £54.2m in Schedule 8 compensation to Stagecoach and Virgin Trains for delays affecting South West Trains, the West Coast Mainline and Cross Country Trains Over the same period last year the figure was just £5.9m. The three franchises account for about 25 per cent of the national rail network. Over the six month period delays attributable to Railtrack on the South West Trains network alone rose by 56 per cent.Some of the increase is due to the deterioration in the network following the Hatfield crash last October. But industry sources say a large proportion of the increase relates to the worsening in performance since 7 October. “Schedule 8 payments are roaring out of control,”said one rail executive.At a national rail conference earlier this week, the debate was dominated by how much Railtrack’s performance has deteriorated in the past two months. “Everyone is complaining bitterly about the performance of the track and the reaction times of Railtrack in putting things right,” said one source.Stagecoach warned yesterday the collapse of Railtrack would delay urgently needed improvements in services on South West Trains, the busiest commuter network in the country.