Rail watchdog, Tom Winsor, has told Railtrack to "put away the begging bowl" and get on with putting the rail network back in order.

Condemning Railtrack's £2 billion funding appeal to the government, Winsor said that while he would consider more financial backing to the troubled company the demand was premature.

He said Railtrack should "knuckle down" to getting train services running again and stop offering meaningless words about how the Hatfield crash had been a "humbling experience".