If you were at the receiving end as I was it felt like a military operation

John Robinson Railtrack chairman

He told the Commons that administration orders prepared 10 days before the news was made public were merely "a sensible contingency".

But Mr Robinson has accused Mr Byers of trying to deflect attention away from whether or not the secretary of state had planned to renationalise Railtrack.

In his Commons statement on Monday, Mr Byers criticised the management of Railtrack saying the chairman had failed to warn shareholders about the financial situation.

Railtrack's 'warning'

And he said Mr Robinson had warned him in a meeting in the summer that if Railtrack was not given more money, it would not be able to continue as a "going concern" by 8 November.

In his statement Mr Byers asked: "What did he Mr Robinson tell his shareholders? That's right, nothing.

"Not a word to his shareholders. So I discharged my responsibilities.

Byers has criticised Railtrack's actions

"Did the directors and chairman of Railtrack discharge theirs?"

But Mr Robinson told Today: "This is a nice try to deflect the issue from the real one which is whether he was running a false market and carrying out plans knowingly to take away shareholders out of Railtrack".

He challenged Mr Byers to submit to an inquiry as he was prepared to do.

Wide-ranging discussion

As for the meeting between the two in the summer, he said his recollection was different from Mr Byers.

He said it was "not true" to say that he had told the transport secretary that Railtrack would not be a going concern without more cash.

"It was a wide-ranging discussion about how Railtrack was going to go ahead".

John Robinson: Mr Byers is trying to deflect the issue

And he said it was the start of discussions about the future regulation of Railtrack, rather than a meeting to decide finances.

He said the issue was instead whether or not Mr Byers had clear plans to renationalise Railtrack.

"He said it was a contingency plan.

"If you were at the receiving end as I was it felt like a military operation. That was no contingency plan," he said.

Mr Robinson said Railtrack would be giving information to an Financial Services Authority inquiry this week into the events leading up to the company going into administration.

Earlier Simon Haslam, leader of an action group representing Railtrack shareholders, said that they would rather meet Mr Byers to discuss what they are entitled to than take legal action.

Ministers have promised to transfer control of Britain's 23,000 miles of track and 2,500 stations from Railtrack to a new firm within six months.

Mr Byers has proposed a not-for-profit company.