Yet many in the rail industry believe the case has shone light only on the process by which the company came to be declared insolvent when it was. Few doubt that it would still have ended up there without the contentious actions of Stephen Byers, the secretary of state for transport, who applied for the court order.

There are also practical reasons for thinking that Railtrack's demise has helped the railways. Network Rail, its government-backed replacement, is regarded as having done a far better job of managing the rail infrastructure, with punctuality steadily improving and costs in many areas apparently falling.