Train managers escape quiz

Managers from South West Trains, the troubled train line whose timetable cuts caused public fury, escaped appearing before a Commons select committee yesterday after Conservative MPs voted to cancel the meeting.

The transport select committee, chaired by a former Conservative minister, Paul Channon, decided to drop the sensitive hearings after Tory MPs voted against continuing the investigation. SWT's poor performance as the first British Rail company to be sold off to the private sector, in this case to Stagecoach, has ensured that the issue will be buried by the government. Randeep Ramesh