RAILTRACK will have to wait until Monday before learning the position of its ownership of the first section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Railtrack chairman John Robinson and chief executive Steve Marshall saw Transport Secretary Stephen Byers yesterday hoping he would make a firm statement on the link.

They wanted Mr Byers to confirm that Railtrack Group - which unlike Railtrack plc is not in administration - was entitled to the link, which is worth about £400m.

But Mr Robinson emerged from a 90-minute meeting to say that Mr Byers had "promised to come back to us in writing on Monday in as helpful a way as he can".

Mr Marshall said: "The Secretary of State said he hoped he would be able to respond positively.

"We also told him about Railtrack employees - 12,000 of them who have slogged their guts out since (the) Hatfield (crash). The show is back on the road. Performance, safety and broken rails are all moving in the right direction."

Earlier, Mr Robinson had said: "It is of critical importance that the Secretary of State resolve without delay various issues regarding the group's retention of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, and our executive team tabled proposals to this effect with Mr Byers' officials on Wednesday.

"If these issues are not resolved immediately, the financial solvency of Railtrack Group will be imperilled, with profoundly damaging consequences for Railtrack's shareholders."

Before the meeting, Mr Byers had reiterated his position as far as shareholders' compensation was concerned.

He said it would be "wholly inappropriate" to use taxpayers money to pay shareholders of a private company.

He denied a suggestion that the Government had been keen for the news of Railtrack's crisis to break over the weekend, at the same time the Allied bombing raids began on Afghanistan.

Mr Byers said the City was looking very carefully at the Railtrack situation and he felt City analysts would recognise that Railtrack was "very much a one-off'" and that private companies would still want to engage in public-private partnerships.

Mr Byers said that what would come out of all this would be "a strong rail network" and that he had taken "decisive action over Railtrack".

Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said the collapse of Railtrack need not deter investors from financing future infrastructure developments.

The Prime Minister's view was that Railtrack was "a unique situation. It was a botched privatisation".

"There were particular issues relating to Railtrack which had to be grasped. Stephen Byers had the courage to grasp that nettle.

"The Prime Minister's view is that companies who want to invest in specific projects will recognise that it is much better to have a sound basis to move forward, rather than to keep pouring public money into what had become a failed company."

Transport officials are also believed to be considering an approach from a German bank, WestLB, interested in helping to fund the rail network.

A Department of Transport spokesman declined to comment on the interest, but said Mr Byers would have to agree to any transfer of the company out of administration.