MORE members of the public blame the Government for the current rail

dispute than either of the parties involved, according to an opinion

poll taken for the Labour Party.

The NOP sample of nearly one thousand interviewees found that 40% hold

the Government responsible for the disruption, 18% Railtrack, and 18%

the rail union. Labour said it commissioned the poll because nobody else

had undertaken one.

The Shadow Transport Secretary, Mr Frank Dobson, said: ''This shows

that the public don't trust the Government on this issue either.''

He said that the continued ministerial intervention showed that either

Ministers misunderstood the object of the negotiations or they ''are

trying to pick a fight''.

He called on Transport Secretary John MacGregor to give Railtrack the

freedom to negotiate and reach a settlement.

Mr Bob Horton, Railtrack's chairman, and Mr Jimmy Knapp, RMT union

general secretary, are to meet for the first time since the signal

workers began their series of strikes over pay.

The talks were set up yesterday by Mr Greville Janner, chairman of the

Commons Employment Select Committee, which questioned both men on the

eve of today's fourth weekly one-day stoppage.

Earlier British Rail's chairman, Sir Bob Reid, had appealed to the

signal workers to suspend their series of 24-hour strikes, due to

continue for a further two Wednesdays, before being escalated to two

days a week. Suspension would allow peace talks to proceed in a

''reasonable atmosphere,'' Sir Bob said.

BR is understood to be frustrated that, while it no longer negotiates

for the 4600 signalling grades, it loses #10m a day in revenue for each

stoppage.

A Downing Street spokesman said the Government's view was there was no

good reason for continuing the damaging strikes. Employment Secretary

David Hunt ''deplored'' RMT's rejection of Railtrack's ''constructive

offer''.

The gulf between the two sides remains vast, with the RMT demanding an

11% interim increase for past productivity concessions, and Railtrack

insisting that any offer must be entirely self-financing by way of fresh

efficiency measures.

Railtrack maintains its offer is worth between 13 and 16% on basic

rates and that 75% of signal staff stand to gain improved overall

earnings.

The RMT, however, says Railtrack's ''rehash'' is worth only 3.5% --

''half of what we were offered three weeks ago'' and would need to be

paid for by way of increased productivity.

Meanwhile, today BR hopes to run more than the 10% of its normal

15,000 passenger services it managed during last Wednesday's stoppage.

But despite this planned extended use of signal supervisors and

managers the bulk of the network will be paralysed.

ScotRail said last night that it hoped to operate the same level of

services as in the previous week. Among those running will be an hourly

service between Glasgow and Edinburgh, beginning at 6.30am.

Other routes hoping to operate despite the fourth one-day strike by

signalmen are the Edinburgh to North Berwick, Bathgate, and Fife Circle.

Glasgow services to Greenock West, Ayr, Largs, Ardrossan and Paisley

Canal will also run.

BR sell-off costs3

Sides persuaded to meet6