Four people died in the crash in October 2000

Railtrack accepted a "lower level of safety" by raising speed restrictions to meet those demands, according to the firm's then head of track David Ventry.

Mr Ventry was giving evidence in the trial of five other rail executives who deny manslaughter charges.

The crash in October 2000 killed four people and injured more than 100.

Three executives from Railtrack - which owned the East Coast Mainline at the time of the derailment - are among those on trial. They are Alistair Cook, 50, Sean Fugill, 50, and Keith Lea, 53.

Diary read out

Two executives from engineering firm Balfour Beatty - Anthony Walker, 46, and Nicholas Jeffries, 53, were also charged.

All the men deny all the charges against them.

Balfour Beatty faces a corporate manslaughter charge and Network Rail health and safety charges, which are denied.

It was clear to me that we must increase speeds and accept a lower level of safety David Ventry

The alleged pressure from Mr Blair came on 27 October, 10 days after the crash.

An extract from Mr Ventry's diaries, read out in court on Friday, said: "On the morning of 27 October Gerald Corbett [Railtrack's former chief executive], Richard Middleton [Railtrack's commercial director] had had a breakfast meeting with Tony Blair, the Prime Minister.

"He told them that the network must return to normal quickly.

Network 'untenable'

"I [Mr Ventry] was asked into Gerald Corbett's office at 9.30am on October 27 and told that I had applied the right action (in imposing speed restrictions) but pressure had been applied by the prime minister."

Mr Ventry, in his eighth day of evidence, told the court: "It was clear to me that we must increase speeds and accept a lower level of safety."

Services had been affected by blanket 20mph speed restrictions, while engineers searched for other potentially dangerous faults.

Gerald Corbett meet with the prime minister soon after the crash

Mr Ventry said he kept the diary because he feared later being criticised and wanted a note of events. He admitted fearing there would be another crash.

A month later Richard Middleton, effectively acting as Railtrack head following Mr Corbett's resignation, had a further meeting with Mr Blair.

Mr Ventry's diary for November 28 2000 reads: "Higher than normal risk. Richard Middleton had meeting with Tony Blair, the prime minister yesterday. Told of pressure to increase speed."

It was later decided that speed limits were to increase from 20mph to 40 or 60mph, depending on track conditions.

Mr Ventry felt Railtrack was getting pressure from the government, shareholders and the rail regulator, he said.

Railtrack's board had believed the network was becoming "untenable" and was "very concerned" about the number of 20mph restrictions, according to his diary.

Railtrack were deceiving the HM Railway Inspectorate at that meeting? Jonathan Goldberg QC

The pressure to increase speed limits against his initial judgment had caused Mr Ventry to consider resignation, he said.

When asked about the demands being made by the government, he said: "I was uncomfortable with the pressure. I thought it was inappropriate."

Following a weekend of large-scale engineering works in late October Mr Ventry also alleged Railtrack did not give the full story to railway inspectors about the firm's management of the kind of track problems found to have triggered the crash.

Jonathan Goldberg QC, for Nicholas Jeffries, said: "Railtrack were deceiving the HMRI [Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate] at that meeting?"

Mr Ventry said: "That's your word. I would agree that they were telling HMRI something different from what was told (internally) in the morning."