BRITAIN'S crisis-hit rail network lurched into deeper turmoil last night with the shock departure of Railtrack chief executive Gerald Corbett.

Only four weeks ago, his resignation was rejected by the company's board in the aftermath of the Hatfield disaster.

But it was announced yesterday at the end of a week in which Railtrack was attacked for increasing dividends to shareholders at a time when compensation claims for cancelled trains are running to millions of pounds a day, and when workers are battling to make the network safe before the Christmas rush.

While father-of-four Mr Corbett, 49 - who was on a basic annual salary of £377,000 - heads for a holiday in India, Railtrack's finance director Steven Marshall, 43, takes over as chief executive, promising to put passengers first.

Railtrack also announced that chairman Sir Philip Beck will stand down next summer.

Mr Corbett's resignation came just a day after he had presented a post-Hatfield recovery plan to the Prime Minister, although the Government stressed that it had nothing to do with his departure.

"My job has been done," said Mr Corbett. "It is a demanding job and an important job and it has been privilege to do it.

"In the last few weeks my own profile has been far too high for my own good, my family's good and also for the company's good. It is quite right that the company should now look forward and draw a line in the sand."

Sir Philip said Mr Corbett would be seen as "one of the outstanding leaders of the rail industry in the last 50 years".

Martin Minns, a spokesman for people who survived the Paddington rail crash, said it was "a shame" that Mr Corbett had decided to go.

"We hope that his departure had nothing to do with his quest to now put safety before profits," he said.

But other views of the man whose stewardship of the railways also embraced the October 1999 Paddington disaster were less generous.

Louise Christian, a solicitor representing many scarred by the Paddington crash as well as the 1997 Southall disaster, said: "I know the bereaved families will welcome it. They felt he had nothing to offer."

In the North-East, where the East Coast Main Line is still suffering massive disruption which has been worsened by the floods, the reaction was also mixed.

South Shields solicitor John Traynor's brother Ged, an officer with Easington District Council, was one of seven victims of the Southall rail disaster three years ago.

He said: "All my family has ever wanted is for rail safety to be improved. Hopefully, his resignation will make those who remain more focused on installing an automatic train protection system to stop trains going through a red light."

A spokesman for Great North Eastern Railway, which is losing up to £500,000 a day because of the chaos, said Mr Corbett had done "a good job".

Rail Passengers Committee North-Eastern branch secretary Ernie Preston said: "Railtrack is making repairs as quickly as possible, for which it should take some credit."

The conflicting opinions about Mr Corbett's departure only make the job of the in-coming Mr Marshall more difficult as he tries to restore public confidence in the railways.

He said: "From my point of view, this is a fantastic opportunity. We have a fantastic team and a huge agenda to get through. We are going to step back and have a look at this whole agenda. We have to see if we are putting all our emphasis in places where the consumer benefits first."

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