Anger over new boss for rail line

COLIN BROWN

and PETER VICTOR

The Government was accused last night of preparing to put a director of a failed double glazing firm in charge of running the Great Western Railway, under its controversial privatisation plans for British Rail.

The resignations of both Sir George Young, the Secretary of State for Transport, and Roger Salmon, the director of railway franchising, were demanded by Brian Wilson, Labour's transport spokesman, after he alleged that the managing director of Resurgence Railway Holdings was a director of a double glazing firm which went into liquidation.

Resurgence Railway Holdings was chosen by the Government as the preferred operator for the privatised services to the Western region. Labour used the disclosure to throw the plans into doubt. Mr Wilson said the glazing firm had left a trail of debts unsettled.

A Southampton county court order in May winding up the company, Conservatories and Windows (UK), named John Ansdell as a director.

Mr Ansdell was named in a search, carried out by Labour at Companies House, as a director of Resurgence Railway Holdings Limited. "It confirms the depths of farce and desperation into which rail privatisation has descended, that they are prepared to hand over the historic Great Western Railway to a failed double-glazing salesman.

"This company has no record of running a passenger railway. Its previous distinguishing feature was that one of Mr Major's local Tory sidekicks is its other main mover. Yet they have cleared every hurdle prior to the franchise being granted," Mr Wilson said last night.

Resurgence Railways was a pounds 100 "off-the-shelf" company set up in January, Mr Wilson added. The Department of Trade and Industry said Conservatories and Windows (UK) Limited had around 30 creditors at the time of its liquidation.

Last night a woman who identified herself as Mr Ansdell's wife said he was not available for comment.