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Network Rail bosses face inquiry
Network Rail bosses were in the dock on Wednesday over a string of failures which have brought Britain's busiest railway to its knees.
- By Dick Murray and Nicholas Cecil, Evening Standard
- Published: 23:38 January 8, 2009
London: Network Rail bosses were in the dock on Wednesday over a string of failures which have brought Britain's busiest railway to its knees.
A major investigation is under way into how overhead power lines have repeatedly been brought down in the past week.
There was still chaos as Virgin Trains cancelled services to and from Eus-ton in the aftermath of yesterday's fiasco, which saw 100,000 people delayed or stranded.
The chairman of the influential Commons Transport Select Committee said she would consider holding an inquiry into the failings, which came just after the £9-billion (Dh50.67 billion) publicly-funded upgrade of the line was completed.
Louise Ellman MP condemned NR's failures as "unacceptable" and said she was keen to grill Network Rail bosses about the catalogue of problems.
"It's totally unacceptable that following the multi-billion-pound upgrade, passengers are once again left stranded," the Labour MP told the Standard.
"This seems to be a series of serious incidents with no rational explanation. The public deserves to have the answers. I will be considering asking Network Rail to give an account of themselves."
Last year NR was fined a record £14 million after it left thousands of passengers stranded by botched engineering works.
Now the company could face fresh fines by the rail regulator if the power line problems are found to have been caused by work being rushed and a new timetable brought in too quickly.
Shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said: "If there is any truth in the claim that disruptions have been caused by rushed work by NR this would be a serious problem.
"Rail passengers need to be assured that the work they did well to complete by the December 2008 deadline has been done to the highest possible standard."
Engineers worked through the night to repair overhead cables brought down near Wembley late on Tuesday night. The power failure came after problems on the line on Tuesday at Rugby in Warwickshire and Bletchley in Buckinghamshire.
The two previous days, trains were disrupted because of engineering works at Watford Junction to repair damaged power lines. Senior rail sources told Evening Standard that separate, unconnected faults are to blame for the incidents. One said: "If anything this makes it worse. If it were a common fault it would be easier to rectify, but if there are different reasons then it is a cause for concern and something is seriously adrift with the maintenance or inspection programme."
NR's own in-house engineers are responsible for maintenance of the overhead power cables, which are between two and four years old. The not-for-profit company has launched a detailed technical investigation into the repeated failures of the line, which business chiefs say has cost the UK economy £38 million in lost worker time and production. Sharon Grant, chairwoman of London TravelWatch, appealed to passengers to contact the watchdog and tell how they were treated by staff.
Top Strata: 'Skewed' compensation
- Iain Coucher, Network Rail chief executive: Responsible for the firm's day-to-day operations, he has seen his six-figure salary topped up by large bonuses despite NR's poor performance. Last year he got a £306,000 bonus on top of his £585,000 wage.
- Simon Kirby, director of infrastructure and investment: Joined NR in July 2003 and took on responsibility for the firm's expansion scheme as director of major projects. The 43-year-old father of two was later appointed to his current role and took charge of schemes including the west coast project and the Thameslink programme.
- Peter Henderson, group infrastructure director: Was not far behind Coucher with a bonus of £219,000 to supplement his £399,000 annual salary. He has more than two decades of experience in the railway industry and came to Network Rail from Bechtel where he was projects director rail, with responsibility for engineering.
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