Losses top pounds 100m as disruption continues

LOST REVENUE for British Rail from the signal workers' dispute has topped pounds 100m as the 10th week of disruption continues today with the second day of a 48-hour strike.

Railtrack denied it was to offer individual contacts tomorrow to the 4,700 signal staff in an attempt to break the strike. The company said its preferred route to settle the dispute was negotiation.

About one-third of BR's 15,000 train services ran yesterday, roughly the same number as in the past four weeks of disruption, and a similar number is expected to operate today. Each strike day costs the corporation pounds 10m in lost revenue. Managers are expressing increasing concern about the long-term damage to passenger and freight business as a result of the dispute, already the longest in BR history.