27 NOVEMBER 1993, Page 28

Get out and push

I HAVE spent much of the last two week- ends on the West Coast main line, where trains were halted for hours because the electricity had been cut off. I found that worrying. In my experience, electricity gets cut off when the bill is not paid. Has British Rail overlooked those little envelopes or is the cash flow under strain? Soon it must hand over its lines and its overhead wires to Railtrack, under the formidable Bob Hor- ton. I do hope that he will pay his bills that is, if the franchise companies pay Rail- tracks's bills.