Adlib Internet Server 5

Title
Records of Railtrack Private Shareholders Action Group
Reference
RPSAG
Production date
01-01-1996 - 30-12-2008

Creator

Railtrack Private Shareholders Action Group Biography Biography
Railtrack Private Shareholders Action Group (RPSAG) was formed at a meeting of Railtrack shareholders on the 19th October 2001. The RPSAG website stated that the mission of the group was to ‘obtain a fair and just settlement for the 255,000 private shareholders of Railtrack who lost millions when their company was forced into administration by the government’. Railtrack was a group of companies that owned track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and stations that made up the British Railway System. It was placed into railway administration under the Railways Act 1993 on the 7th October 2001 following an application to the High Court by the then Transport Secretary Stephen Byers. A number of other action groups were formed after Railtrack was put into administration. These included Railtrack Shareholders Action Group (RSAG) which represented institutional shareholders and Railtrack Action Group (RAG) which was a web based group which abandoned legal action after accepting an increased share offer. RPSAG was the only group to take their case to court. Railtrack shareholders experienced a dramatic decrease in the value of their shares. RPSAG believed that Railtrack’s financial difficulties were caused by the government and that the government’s actions reduced investor confidence in the organisation. These factors, they argued, saw shares become ‘almost worthless, not because Railtrack was bankrupt but because of the government’s covert and politically motivated actions’. RPSAG operated from the office of their solicitors, Edwin Coe in Chancery Lane, London. The group was an unincorporated association without any separate legal status. All communications emanated from Edwin Coe and all formal committee meetings took place there. The group was known by their initials RPSAG, pronounced ‘rap-sag’. Andrew Chalken, a Network Rail employee was elected as Chairman at the group’s inaugural committee meeting on the 26th October 2001. The Committee varied in size throughout the group’s existence with some early members leaving and committee members played more or less prominent roles depending on their skills and experience. In 2005 the committee was made up of 13 former Railtrack investors, rail workers and other interested individuals ranging from a former rugby international to an NHS paediatrician. No committee members were paid for their work. Members of RPSAG paid a membership subscription of £20, plus - for those who took part in the legal action - an amount that related to the number of shares held, approximately 5-10p per share. An additional £30 was required after April 2005. Membership closed on the 10th June 2005. Members were characteristically small shareholders. The RPSAG website describes them as ‘ordinary people who were saving for their retirement, saving for their children, happy to invest in the country’s railways as a safe home for their savings’. On the 30th September 2002 RPSAG launched its legal campaign fund by writing to all its members and asking for a contribution to a fund for legal action. The group exceeded its target of £2 million and on the 9th January 2003 the committee formally agreed to launch its legal action against the government. On the 2nd December 2003 RPSAG issued a claim to the High Court, the claim form states that: 'The claimants who were all shareholders of Railtrack plc on the 7th October 2001, Claim damages (including exemplary damages) for misfeasance in public office and/or breach of the Claimant’s rights under Article 1 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights arising out of the role of the Secretary of State for Transport and the Department for Transport in Placing Railtrack plc in administration on the 7th October 2001'. The trial took place in June to July 2005, however judgement was reserved until October 2005. The group was represented by solicitors Edwin Coe and by Keith Rowley QC and was the largest class action ever conducted in English courts. The judgement went against RPSAG, and on the 21st October 2005 the group made the decision not to appeal and they subsequently began proceedings to disband. RSPAG was finally wound up in 2007 and their financial surplus was donated to a railway charity.

Scope and Content
The RPSAG collection consists of 37 A4 files of printed and photocopied documents and seven archival boxes containing 31 bundles of printed A4 pages, newspaper cuttings and manuscript documents. The collection also contains two CD disks and one USB drive. The first part of the archive is largely made of copied material and is not the definitive archive of RPSAG. RPSAG/1 does not contain original records of the group, or the original records of government departments. The core financial and membership records of the group are not yet available and are held by representatives of RPSAG. The selection of documents in RPSAG/1 is however unique, having been assembled and ordered by RPSAG in a way that they believed demonstrated and supported their case. The court case was extremely high profile and controversial and was a key event in the evolution of UK rail management. As well as this the case was discussed in the light of wider issues of government and ministerial openness. The collection as a whole demonstrates how the management of railways is politically significant and how key railways are to the economy of this country. RPSAG/3 and RPSAG/4 contain original records of RPSAG such as correspondence and organisational records such as minutes and financial records. It contains records that demonstrate how the group administered itself and how it sought to gain the support of shareholders. It also contains correspondence from individual shareholders expressing their often emotive views on the actions of the government, including how the situation had affected them personally. The collection demonstrates how a key event in recent railway history had a social impact on many people. Records also include those that cover the PR activities of the group and newspaper cuttings that track the development of the case. These are backed up by records from the website (RPSAG/2). The collection as a whole demonstrates how much attention the group generated and how important the case was to the public.
Extent
7 boxes and 37 files
Physical description
The records consist of print outs, photocopies and manuscript letters and notes. All are in good condition. The archive includes CD disks and a USB device.
Language
English
Archival history
RSPAG/1 Copies of evidence submitted for evidence to the High Court: records were held by RSPAG until they were donated by the Group to the National Railway Museum in December 2007. RPSAG/2 Copies of pages from the RPSAG website: the records were made public through the RPSAG website (www.rpsag.org.uk) from 2001 until 7 Feb 2009 when the website was taken off the Internet. The files that made up the final version were retained on disk by the former Website Editor and a copy of these files was transferred to the NRM in July 2009. RPSAG/3 Organisational records: these records were gathered by the former Honorary Secretary of RPSAG during his time in the group. They were transferred to the National Railway Museum in September 2009. RPSAG/4 Emails: this set of emails was retained by the former Website Editor of RPSAG. A copy of the email folder was transferred to the NRM in November 2009.
Level of description
TOP
Repository name
National Railway Museum, York

Associated people and organisations

Railtrack Group PLC Biography Biography
The government decided to privatize British Rail by reorganizing different areas of British Rail's responsibilities, creating four main component parts: track, rolling stock, maintenance, and train operators. The old railway companies Regional Railways, Network SouthEast, and InterCity were abolished and replaced with 25 train-operating units. The railway infrastructure (the track) was placed under the control of the newly formed, government-owned Railtrack. Railtrack was set up on 1 April 1994 under the Railways Act 1993 to manage the rail infrastructure (track, stations, signalling etc.) in the UK. This was part of government plans to restructure and privatise the rail industry. These required separating the management of the railway infrastructure from the provisions of train services. Railtrack is one of the largest commercial estate owners in Britain, with 20,000 miles of track, 2,500 stations, and more than 40,000 bridges and tunnels. Tenants included Battersea Dogs' Home and the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange. Railtrack's customers are the 25 train operating companies and the freight companies. Its job was to provide access to its network, manage the allocation of train paths; plan and co-ordinate train movements, and produce a workable timetable. Railtrack is split into zones which manage Railtrack’s day-to-day business, originally ten zones, the East Coast and North Eastern zones merged in June 1995 to form the London North Eastern Zone (LNE), while the West Coast Main Line Zone was absorbed by the Midland and North West Zones. The other zones are as follows, the Great Western Zone, South West Zone, Scotland Zone, East Anglia Zone and South Zone. In the LNE Zone Railtrack control is in the main headquarters building in York, the South Zone headquarters is based above Waterloo Station. Railtrack is responsible for maintenance and renewal of the railway infrastructure. Work is contracted to seven privatised infrastructure maintenance companies and six track renewal companies which supply services on a roughly geographical basis. These broadly relate to the zones into which Railtrack is organised. The directors of each zone report to the chief executive of Railtrack and play a major role in customer relations with train operators and business planning within their geographical areas. The engineering and production division is responsible for all work relating to maintenance, renewal and operation. In January 1996 the U.K. government confirmed the privatization of Railtrack for £2bn with a total asset value of £4bn. In October of the same year, Railtrack announced a plan to invest £1.5 billion in upgrading the West Coast Mainline railway. During its first year as a private company, Railtrack experienced its first of many deadly train crashes when in August 1996 a commuter train collided with an empty train, killing one person and injuring 66. Throughout 1997 and 1998, Railtrack entered into agreements with other rail companies, announced large-scale projects aimed at improving the rail network, and won important contracts. Some of these projects and contracts included: in January 1997, the company outlined a £560 million project called the Thameslink 2000; the following month, Railtrack unveiled a £15 billion plan to create the world's most efficient rail network; the company came to an agreement with Virgin Rail (Virgin) to an upgrade package that enabled Virgin to operate high-speed trains on certain intercity routes, and later, joined a partnership with Virgin wherein they promised to invest £600 million in the West Coast Mainline. The company's expansion streak continued when, in 1988, Railtrack along with the U.K. government and London and Continental Railways (LCR), agreed to a public private partnership (PPP) deal to save the proposed Channel Tunnel project. The PPP involved the management of Eurostar (an LCR service that was intended to supply income while the railroad link was being constructed), based on the restructuring of LCR. This deal led to Railtrack's 1999 participation in the design, construction, finance, and operation of The Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). The CTRL was designed to carry high-speed services between London and the Channel Tunnel. The details of the CTRL deal enabled Railtrack to manage the construction of the CTRL, as well as assume responsibility for the operational management of the first phase of the project's infrastructure. As a result of their participation, Railtrack was granted the opportunity to purchase the entire new link upon completion of the project, although part of the plan was that the ownership of the link would eventually (in 2086) revert to the U.K. government. Along with the partnerships and deals that Railtrack entered into during this period, they also experienced disaster in the form of one major train crash in 1997. Seven people were killed when an express passenger train crashed into a good train in a London suburb. Below the holding company, Railtrack Group PLC, lies the trading company Railtrack Corp, which holds two non-trading arms (Railtrack Projects and Railtrack Stations). Another trading arm, Railtrack (UK), was set up to handle the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project. There is also Railtrack Insurance, a Guernsey-based captive insurer. The latest addition is Railtrack Developments, set up in March 1999. Only two years after Railtrack's privatization, the company began to receive chastisement from the government for its failure to suitably upkeep the country's rail network. In December 1998, Rail Regulator Chris Bolt outlined a proposal that would cut future Railtrack profits and demand increased investment in the rail network; this proposal was scheduled to come into effect in 2001. The following year, an official report criticized Railtrack heavily for its failure to remedy train delays, run-down stations and out-of-date signaling. Soon after this report was released, the new Rail Regulator Tom Winsor informed Railtrack that if it did not improve passenger train performance by 12.7 percent by March 2000, the company would be fined from its profits. In November 1999, Tom Winsor began enforcement action against Railtrack for its failure to upgrade the West Coast Mainline as it had previously agreed to. The chastisement did not have a noticeable effect on Railtrack. Indeed, not one month after the rail regulator started the process of enforcement; Railtrack announced that the cost of upgrading the West Coast Mainline would be almost three times the original estimate. This same year, a syndicate of 19 banks provided Railtrack with a £1 billion syndicated loan to rescue them from their monetary woes. Train crashes continued to occur, despite the government's attempt to goad Railtrack into improving rail safety, and in 1999 two trains collided outside London killing 31 people and injuring 400. In February 2000, Railtrack signed a £98 billion public private partnership (PPP) with Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive (Nexus) to develop the Sunderland Metro system. Railtrack undertook the design, construction, testing, and commissioning of the Northeast England network, including the parts of the network that connected to the Metro. Railtrack also agreed to build additional stations along the lines' extensions. Railtrack invested £40 million, Nexus provided £8 million, the European Regional Development Fund provided £12 million, and the central government invested £35 million. On October 17, 2000, a broken rail caused a passenger train to derail near Hatfield; four people were killed and 34 were injured. The emergency recovery program that followed the crash cost Railtrack £644 million. Soon after the train wreck, in February 2001, Railtrack's Chief Executive Steve Marshall warned that Railtrack could have a net debt of approximately £8 billion come 2003. Railtrack Group PLC was put into administration on 7 October 2001 and came out of it on 1 October 2002. Network Rail took over many of its responsibilities on 3 October.

Subject
Railways
Law
Committees
Membership
Conditions governing access
Access is given in accordance with the NRM access policy. Material from this archive is available to researchers through Search Engine. Users will be required to sign a form declaring that any use of personal data contained within the archive will be in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Personal Information contained in the archive may be redacted for confidentiality reasons.
Conditions governing Reproduction
Copies may be supplied of items in the archive, provided that the copying process used does not damage the item or is not detrimental to its preservation. Copies will be supplied in accordance with the NRM’s terms and conditions for the supply and reproduction of copies, and the provisions of any relevant copyright legislation.
Appraisal
No appraisal of RPSAG/1 or RPSAG/2 has been undertaken. Duplicated records, unrelated ephemera and personal financial records of no continuing historical value have been removed from RPSAG/3. Records have been sampled from RPSAG/4, however the full collection remains on the CD disk.
System of arrangement
RPSAG/1 - The original order has been maintained and arranged into eleven series which reflect the main classes of documentation that was presented by the RPSAG to the court. Records were arranged by RPSAG in an order that the organisation felt was most appropriate to demonstrate arguments to the court. RPSAG/2 - The original order of the records was difficult to ascertain as they were not arranged in the original structure of the website. The copies have therefore been arranged into five series that reflect the types of record that made up the site. RPSAG/3 - The original order of records has been maintained where this order was clear. For example files that dealt with PR (RPSAG/3/5/2) and representation of the group in court (RPSAG/3/4/2). These series have been listed in detail in the order of the files to maintain original meaning and context. These files have been listed to item level. Where the original order was unclear records have been grouped into series that reflect the functions of the group, for example ‘finance’ and ‘administrative.’ Some correspondence has been described at series level. This is due to the sheer volume of some files and the lack of original order. Records are also held on a USB drive. These are mainly unordered and a summary of these is contained in RPSAG/3/6. For ease of access files from the USB drive have been sampled and printed and represent the contents of the drive. RSPAG/4 - The records held on the CD disk remain in their original order. It contains a very large volume of emails which can be searched by users through ‘search and sort’ mechanisms in order to find emails that contain a certain subject or individual. For ease of reference a sample of email correspondence has been printed. The sample was ascertained by the archivist by using ‘search and sort’ facilities. Record classes that reflected functions of the group were searched for and selected in this way. The main functions of the group were identified by looking at the prominent activities identified in the rest of the collection, for example media, finance, PR. Synonyms of these functions derived from thesauri were also searched for in order to ‘catch’ a good range of emails. The rationale for this approach was taken from the archival Personal Archives Accessible in Digital Media (Paradigm) project. A project by the major research libraries of Manchester and Oxford explored issues involved in preserving private digital papers. (http://www.paradigm.ac.uk/)