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Friday 7 Oct 2005

NETWORK RAIL COMMENTS ON HATFIELD FINE

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National

Mr Justice McKay today imposed fines on Balfour Beatty and Network Rail (having assumed Railtrack’s liabilities), having been found guilty of health and safety offences associated with the Hatfield crash. Justice McKay concluded the level of fines to be: ·         Balfour Beatty – £10 million ·         Network Rail – £3.5 million  Network Rail’s Chairman, Ian McAllister said: “The Hatfield tragedy was a terrible event for everyone involved.  Lessons have been learnt and the rail industry has changed enormously for the better over the past five years. “Since Network Rail took over the nation’s railway infrastructure some three years ago, maintenance has been taken in-house rather than being outsourced, and we have changed our approach from a ‘find and fix’ maintenance regime to one of ‘predict and prevent’.  We have also invested heavily in new maintenance technology and doubled the size of our company to some 30,000 employees.  “All these changes have been made as we work to minimise the chances of this ever happening again.” Network Rail is a very different company to Railtrack.  In the three years that it has been in-charge of the nation’s railway infrastructure, it has made sweeping changes to its priorities, to the company structure, and to its people and processes:

• Network Rail, is a not-for-dividend company, with engineering at its core
• The running of a safe, reliable and efficient rail network are the company’s clear priorities

• Maintenance has been brought in-house under direct control

• As a result, maintenance has moved from a ‘find and fix’ approach to one of ‘predict and prevent’
• We have embarked on a massive railway investment programme, spending over £5bn each year to operate, maintain and renew the rail infrastructure
• We have invested heavily in new technology that measures the condition of the rail infrastructure in more detail and more accurately than ever before