The chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, Sir Alastair Morton, yesterday called on the government to implement "one great programme" to reform Britain's crisis-wracked rail system.

Morton said he was "severely surprised" that Railtrack's functions and remit were to be left largely intact in the new not-for-profit body it is being replaced with.

"I do not believe we need Railtrack emerging from administration doing the same job as when it went in. I am very concerned that we restructure the railways in one great programme with the maximum amount of consensus. If you muddle along doing bits of it, the patient will die," he told the Commons transport select committee.