Network Rail has given warning that the record
£14 million fine imposed today by the Office of the Rail Regulator
(ORR) for non-performance will have a "material impact" on bonuses
(writes Angela Jameson)
Iain Coucher, the chief executive of the rail infrastructure group, declined
to give further details, but said that everyone would be hit.
Mr Coucher said that the bonuses would be affected so that "every single
person inside Network Rail gets the message that no overrun will be tolerated".
The regulator has said that it intends to write to the Network Rail
remuneration committee to ask it to take special account of Network Rail's
breach of its licensing conditions when it considers bonuses
The move comes as more Virgin Rail passengers face fresh rail misery this
Easter as Network Rail
closes the West Coast Main Line south of Birmingham for four days over
the Bank Holiday weekend.
No rail services will run in or out of London Euston from Good Friday to Bank
Holiday Monday.
Passengers who wish to travel from the capital will have to take a bus
replacement service to Coventry or travel from Marylebone station to
Birmingham.
To add to the rail misery, Easter Sunday services on the East Coast Main Line
— the other main route to Scotland through Yorkshire and the North East —
will be subject to significant delays as trains are diverted after
Doncaster, through Leeds.
Nor will the end of the Easter Bank Holiday see a return to normal services.
Network Rail has said that there will be a greatly reduced service into
Euston, with longer journey times, on Tuesday, March 25, as trains will have
to be diverted through the West Midlands.
Network Rail, which is upgrading the line to make it possible to introduce a
new timetable with faster journey times in December, has also confirmed that
it will have to close sections of the line for 315 hours — as many as 13
weekends — this summer to finish engineering works.
The prospect of Easter rail misery will also disappoint passenger groups that
today welcomed moves by the rail regulator to take action against Network
Rail after the delays at Rugby and Liverpool Street station in January,
which it said were "totally unacceptable" and part of a "continuing
breach by the company of its licence".
The regulator said in a statement this morning that the rail infrastructure
group had jeopardised the reputation of the railway through its weakness in
planning engineering projects and its failure to communicate properly within
the company and with train operators.
And the watchdog also criticised the rail infrastructure group for not having
a "robust plan" to complete improvements to the West Coast Main
Line, in time to make changes to the timetable in December 2008.
Bill Emery, the chief executive of the ORR, said: "It is quite clear from
our thorough investigation that Network Rail is failing to manage major
engineering work consistently well as it should.
"This is due particularly to weaknesses in the company's planning, risk
assessment and site management of projects as well as to failures of
communication within the company and with train operators."
Network Rail has been ordered to produce a plan by the end of March detailing
how it intends to complete the West Coast Main Line improvements in the next
nine months.
The project, which is understood to be delayed, is likely to cause repeated
shutdowns for engineering work between now and December.
The fine on Network Rail, the biggest since it was fined £2.4 million for
allowing engineering works to overrun at Portsmouth in 2006, comes on the
day that Sir Ian McAllister, the chairman of the infrastructure group,
collects his knighthood from Buckingham Palace.
Sir Ian has been heavily criticised for staying at home during the new year
chaos. He told a newspaper that he would only get in the way if he went into
the office.
The disruption to services comes only two months after Mr Coucher told The
Times that trains would run 365 days a year and that it would find ways of
restricting its engineering work to eight-hour stretches over nights so that
lines would not have to be closed over weekends.
Mr Coucher said: "Following the new year, we have listened to passengers
and those who represent them and now our planning and preparation is more
robust than ever.
"Each project is an immense engineering challenge in its own right, and
Network Rail is absolutely determined to deliver a safe and reliable railway
back to passengers and freight users at the promised time."
Over the four-day holiday the rail infrastructure group has said that it will
deliver 300,000 hours of engineering work.
About 6,000 engineers are expected to be employed around the clock on the
projects.
However, the Easter disruption will pose a crucial test of Network Rail's
planning and engineering competence and all eyes will be fixed on whether
they are able to complete the planned work on time.
Commenting on the ORR's fine, Mr Coucher said: “We are clear that the ORR has
said that what happened at the new year cannot happen again.
"We agree and accept the findings in the report. We will make changes in
the way we plan and manage future work on the railways."
The rail infrastructure boss, who took over from John Armitt last year, added
that Network Rail had already made changes since the new year to bring in
more specialist engineers.
In particular it has said that it will reduce its reliance on agency staff,
specifically in overhead line engineers.
The shortage of overhead line engineers during the Christmas and new year
period was the main reason for the rail group's inability to complete
engineering work at Rugby on time.
Network Rail told the Transport Select Committee that some days only 50 per
cent of the overhead line engineers who were hired turned up for work.
Mr Coucher said: “We are now focused on delivering our improvement programme
for Easter and have already begun informing passengers about the works
taking place.
"We will work with the train operating companies and National Rail
Enquiries over the next few weeks to get the message out so passengers will
be able to check their journeys before they travel."
Network Rail has said that it will accept the fine but has suggested that the
money, which goes to the Department for Transport, should be used to deliver
additional and concrete benefits for passengers.
The ORR’s report said today that at Rugby, while Network Rail had good
planning and project management processes in place, it failed to ensure that
site management was adequate.
This meant that at key times it was unaware of the extent of the problems on
the ground, unable to minimise their impact and unable to provide reliable
information to passengers and train operators.
At Liverpool Street it failed to conduct effective assessment of the risks
involved before beginning work and failed to ensure that site management was
adequate, leading to the same consequences as at Rugby.
At Shields Junction, Network Rail failed to conduct effective assessment of
the risks involved before beginning work, which meant that it failed to
design and install the signalling equipment effectively and efficiently.
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat Transport spokesman, said: "This
sounds like a huge fine, but it is a pointless one. All it means is Network
Rail will have £14 million less to invest in railways, and the Chancellor £14
million more in his coffers. This is actually bad news for passengers.“
He added that the only sensible option was to penalise directors through their
bonuses.
Politicians and transport unions have criticised the fining system, arguing
that the not-for-dividend Network Rail, which has more than 100 members made
up of stakeholders rather than shareholders, is effectively a public company
and, therefore, taxpayers merely pick up the fine.
A spokesman for Virgin Trains, the train operator that was most affected by
the disruption at Rugby over the New Year said that travelling on the West
Coast Main Line was going to be extremely difficult for its passengers this
year.
"We think it is an extraordinarily tight timetable to get the work
completed. But now we have a month to sit down and agree a timetable with
Network Rail. What we really want is certainty and guarantees that their
timetable is workable," the spokesman said.
