Posted 13th May 2011 | 4 Comments
Network Rail fined £3m over Potters Bar derailment
NETWORK RAIL has been fined £3 million for its share of the liability for the Potters Bar crash, which happened nine years ago this month.
The company did not exist at that time, but it has accepted legal responsibility for the actions of its predecessor Railtrack.
A major rail union has warned that the lessons of Potters Bar should be heeded by those who wish to fragment the industry further.
Seven people died as a result of the derailment of a fast West Anglia Great Northern train from London to King's Lynn 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 declined to attend legal proceedings.
Network Rail had entered a formal plea of guilty to health and safety offences on 30 March this year.
In a statement the company said it was 'truly sorry' but pointed out that the railway was now safer than it had ever been. The track is no longer maintained by contractors, after Network Rail took all such work back in-house.
Meanwhile the general secretary of the RMT Bob Crow said: “People need to remember that it was the privatised Railtrack and their contractors who were responsible for the Potters Bar disaster and that Network Rail have been left to sweep up the mess that they inherited from that failed company and that includes paying this fine. Network Rail didn’t even exist when the tragedy of Potters Bar occurred.
"As far as RMT is concerned it is the directors of Railtrack and Jarvis who should have been held personally liable for this disaster and those now arguing for the break up of Network Rail and the creation of a privatised, Railtrack2, should look long and hard at the images of what happened on that tragic day. It is a scandal that those really responsible have got away with it.”
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
Tony Pearce, Reading, UK
If I'm correct, it is a mystery who removed the nuts from the bolts at this pointwork.
No scheduled maintenance was done at this site immediatley prior to the failure.
The amount of rust on the exposed bolts again was inconclusive as to when they were removed.
The allegation at the time that it was sabotage, although unlikely, might just be true.
Still its easy to blame a company that no longer exists, but I think this still remains a mystery.
Sam Green, Bournemouth, UK
What a complete waste of time and money! Who will pay the fine anyway? The taxpayer! So the taxpayer is fining the taxpayer!You couldn`t make it up could you? It`s Jarvis Rail that was at fault anyway for skimping on maintenance to save money! £3 million down the drain .Money which would be better spent on railway safety improvements and investment & modernisation of the railway network to ensure an incident such as the Potters Bar crash never happens again!
Dave Copping, Polegate, United Kingdom
That's £3,000,000 less to spend on much-needed investment.
Joel Kosminsky, London, Britain
NetRail's acceptance of liability for the actions of a predecessor doing the same tasks is significant. It sets a legal precedent of *all* successor railway companies, because of the nature of rail operations in Britain, having absolute responsibility for the effects of those who worked the railway beforehand. This could be a key and welcome factor in stopping cowboys bidding for franchises to milk passengers'/taxpayers' pockets, and the much-needed return of rail to a single transparent value-for-money public owner.