LONDON — The government called for a fundamental change Monday in the way Britain’s railway lines are maintained after an interim report blamed a recent deadly train derailment on a faulty track-switching mechanism, a wire service reports.
Since the high-speed train accident killed seven people and injured more than 70 at a suburban station north of London on May 10, investigators have been trying to determine what caused several nuts on the switching mechanism to come loose, allowing it to move as the train passed over it.
Jarvis PLC, the company responsible for maintaining the stretch of track, has suggested the nuts may have been deliberately loosened in an act of sabotage.
But rail experts have dismissed those claims and say poor maintenance is a more likely cause of the accident at Potters Bar.
On Monday, as a bout of finger pointing in the British news media continued, the Daily Mirror newspaper ran a front-page story about poor track maintenance by a separate company. It published 11 photos that it said showed 30 defects on a 10-mile (16 kms) stretch of busy train line, including missing bolts.
Speaking at a national conference of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers said on Monday that a “fundamental change” in the way railway maintenance is managed is “vital” for the industry’s future.
He refused to comment on the Jarvis sabotage claim, but he said the Health and Safety Executive must be allowed to finish its investigation into the Potters Bar derailment and issue its final report.
Byers, who arrived a few minutes late at the conference in Scarborough because of a late-running train, called for changes in the relationship between the train lines and their maintenance contractors. He said contracts should be awarded on the basis of the best value and safety, not simply on low cost.
“It is quality, best value, safety that has to be paramount, not the lowest price,” Byers said. “Change is essential and a new relationship is vital. I say that because of concerns over the relationship between contractors and subcontractor.”
Railtrack, the owner of Britain’s railway infrastructure, is responsible for the maintenance on the train lines, and it often hires private companies to do that.
In February, Railtrack announced that it would be taking a more hands-on approach to the way maintenance of the lines is handled, with key decisions being conducted in-house rather than by the private contractors.