NETWORK Rail will be sentenced on 12 May for its inherited liability as a result of the Potters Bar derailment, after the company pleaded guilty on behalf of its predecessor Railtrack today.

The fine could easily run into seven figures, although the judge will take the company’s ‘extensive’ plea in mitigation into account.

Seven people died as a result of the derailment of a fast down train in May 2002, and it was later established that points on the approach to the station had not been properly maintained.

Six of those killed were on the train, whose last vehicle was completely derailed and ended up on its side, wedged broadside under platform canopies.

The seventh fatality was a woman pedestrian who had been walking under the station bridge and was hit by debris.

The contractor directly responsible for maintaining the track at Potters Bar was Jarvis, but that company went into administration last year, and the administrators have declined to attend recent legal proceedings and the ORR, as prosecutor, decided not to proceed..

Network Rail did not exist when the accident occurred, but has to accept any liability on behalf of its predecessor Railtrack.

Network Rail was fined £3.5 million following the derailment two years earlier on the same line, at nearby Hatfield. As in the Potters Bar case, the company had been charged as the legal successor to Railtrack.