Counselling has been offered to all York-based Railtrack staff following the Hatfield rail crash which left four passengers dead.

The city office is in charge of the East Coast mainline on which last week's derailment happened.

Some staff members were rushed by helicopter to the crash site.

But Railtrack Chairman Sir Philip Beck told the Evening Press all members of his York staff would be offered help, no matter what their job.

He said: "When something like this happens, if somebody feels there is anything they could have done that could have avoided it, I can imagine it can be very difficult to deal with.

"A lot of people from York have been on site, and all our staff are under stress. They are a very proud lot and this has knocked them for six. They do need support and help."

Sir Philip visited the city yesterday to speak at a private meeting of staff.

He said: "Staff are working very hard, extra-long hours and they are under a lot of stress.

"What I came here to say was that we are not just leaving them up here to get on with it. We can listen to their problems, we have been offering counselling and we are able to second people from other parts of the network."

A minute's silence was due to be held at all stations visited by GNER trains, including York, at 12.23pm today, exactly one week since the accident happened.

Railtrack has taken full responsibility for the accident last Tuesday, in which a GNER service between London Kings Cross and Leeds was derailed. It has been blamed on a broken rail.

Timetable changes have been put in place while speed restrictions are imposed at numerous sections of track with similar problems while they are fixed.

Sir Philip said: "There are emergency speed restrictions in place at a large number of places where we know there is this problem.

"It is very difficult at the moment for me to say how long these restrictions will be in place. If I am asked in a week or two I may be able to give a sensible answer but, at the moment, we are trying to eliminate any risk and the restrictions will be in place as long as that takes."

adam.nichols@ycp.co.uk