Once again, major disruption to train services which brought pain to passengers and embarrassment to rail bosses, looks like paving the way for change.
The much publicised engineering overruns at Rugby, Liverpool Street and in Glasgow during the New Year break have given critics the chance to pour opprobrium on the railway and all its doings.
But perhaps the critical resourcing problems at Rugby and the other sites will act as a watershed from when things change for the better.
Network Rail, still in the middle of an exhaustive investigation into why the Rugby site in particular was left so short of essential, overhead line, manpower, has come out with a plan which hopefully will prevent any future overrunning of major engineering blockades.
The latest delays have concentrated minds on what is most important to it. The right number of engineers, loyal to the company, with the right skills, and available at the right time.
Network Rail has identified that too much reliance has been placed on letting the contractor involved bring in key staff. Casual agency staff don’t always have the interests of the industry at heart.
These are commendable moves, although coming too late to save Network Rail having to pay out an estimated £10 million to train and freight companies who lost business.