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Line 796: ==Private versus public-sector status== {{See also\|Railtrack}} In 2001, the ~~then~~ Labour government denied that it had nationalised the rail network in order to prevent Railtrack's shareholders claiming, via the European Court of Human Rights, the four-year average price of Railtrack, about £10 per share. Instead, Railtrack's shareholders were given only £2.60.<ref>{{cite news \|url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jul/30/transport.Whitehall \|title=Rail buy-out too costly for government \|newspaper=The Guardian \|place=London \|first=Lucy \|last=Ward \|date=30 July 2001 \|access-date=20 May 2010 \|url-status=live \|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130825094658/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jul/30/transport.Whitehall \|archive-date=25 August 2013 \|df=dmy-all}}</ref> ''The Times'' reported that Gordon Brown's aide, [[Shriti Vadera, Baroness Vadera\|Shriti Vadera]] e-mailed [[Stephen Byers]] in July 2001 asking: "Can we engineer the solution through insolvency ... and therefore avoid [[Compensation (nationalization)\|compensation]] under the [[Human Rights Act 1998\|Human Rights Act]]?"<ref>{{cite news \|url= https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/railtrack-shares-trial-exposes-ministers-with-a-license-to-steal-x6n3npqtb7h\|title=Railtrack shares trial exposes ministers with a license to steal \|work=The Times \|place=London \|first=Simon \|last=Jenkins \|date=17 July 2005 \|access-date=30 June 2018}}</ref> [[Railtrack]] plc was placed into railway administration under the [[Railways Act 1993]] on 7 October 2001, following an application to the [[High Court of Justice of England and Wales\|High Court]] by the then [[Secretary of State for Transport\|Transport Secretary]], Stephen Byers.<ref>{{cite news \|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110312220300/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/railtrack-goes-bankrupt-with-debts-of-acircpound33bn-630604.html \|archive-date=12 March 2011 \|title=Railtrack goes bankrupt with debts of £3.3bn \|newspaper=[[The Independent]] \|date=8 October 2001 \|url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/railtrack-goes-bankrupt-with-debts-of-acircpound33bn-630604.html}}</ref> It was reported in November 2001 that a further £3.5 billion might be needed to keep the national railway network running, a sum disputed by [[Ernst & Young]], the administrators.<ref>{{cite news \|url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/nov/24/politics.transport \|title=Blair told: find £3.5bn or the railways collapse \|newspaper=The Guardian \|place=London \|date=24 November 2001 \|url-status=live \|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170510212153/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/nov/24/politics.transport \|archive-date=10 May 2017 \|df=dmy-all}}</ref> To get Railtrack out of administration, the government had to return to the High Court and present evidence that the company was no longer insolvent. The principal reason given by the government to the court for this assertion was the decision of the [[Rail Regulator\|rail regulator]] in 2002 to carry out an interim review of the company's finances, with the potential to advance significant additional sums to the company.<ref>{{cite news \|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2828365/Winsors-pointer-to-rail-billions.html \|title=Windsor's pointer to rail billions \|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph \|place=London \|date=25 September 2002 \|url-status=live \|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180301015040/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2828365/Winsors-pointer-to-rail-billions.html \|archive-date=1 March 2018 \|df=dmy-all}}</ref> The High Court accepted that the company was not insolvent, and the railway administration order was discharged in October 2002.{{Citation needed\|date=February 2021}}

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