Gary Hart was jailed for five years

Hart was found to have been negligent after admitting having little or no sleep the night before setting off from his home in Strubby, Lincolnshire, on a 147-mile (236-kilometre) journey.

He fell asleep at the wheel of his Land Rover causing it to leave the M62 and on to the railway line.

Moments later his Land Rover was hit by a Newcastle-to-London Kings Cross GNER express train travelling at 117 mph (188 km/h), which then collided with a fully-laden northbound coal train carrying 1,600 tonnes of coal.

The spokesman said GNER and freight operator Freightliner were also seeking to recover losses, which, although lower, could still run in to millions of pounds.

"We had the biggest costs because we footed the bill for the clean-up operation, repairing the track and so on," he said.

Hart's insurers Fortis said immediately after last year's crash that arrangements were in place to provide protection against major incidents such as Selby.

The company said it expected the total cost of claims to run into tens of millions of pounds and would "not impact the solvency of the company or its ability to meet future liabilities".

At the end of 1999 the Fortis group had assets of more than �250 billion.