NETWORK Rail was today fined a record £14 million for serious overruns in engineering works – as the company's chairman Ian McAllister picked up his knighthood at Buckingham Palace.
The fine was imposed by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) following the massive disruption caused by late-running engineering work on the West Coast mainline at New Year.
Work on the track at Rugby in the West Midlands took four extra days, with
thousands of passengers having to take coaches.
Other overruns over the festive period were at London's Liverpool Street station and at Shields Junction near Glasgow.
Sir Ian stayed at home during the crisis, saying he would only get in the way if he went into work.
ORR chief executive Bill Emery said: "What happened over the New Year was totally unacceptable for passengers and freight customers, and to train operating companies.
"The weakness in Network Rail's management of these projects had a serious impact on all of them and on the reputation of the railway.
"It is quite clear Network Rail is failing to manage major engineering work as well as it should."
Mr Emery highlighted weaknesses in the company's planning, risk assessment and site management, as well as failures of communication within the company and with train operators.
Politicians and transport unions have criticised the fining system, arguing that Network Rail is effectively a public company and therefore taxpayers end up paying the fine.
Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker MP said: "This sounds like a huge fine, but it is a pointless one. All it means is Network Rail will have £14m less to invest in railways, and the Chancellor £14m more in his coffers. This is actually bad news for passengers.
"The only sensible leverage over Network Rail in its present structure is to penalise directors through their bonuses."
Network Rail chief executive Iain Coucher said: "We have already made changes and the action we have taken will further improve our delivery record and enable us to build a bigger, better railway that passengers and freight users deserve."
Network Rail has already said the West Coast Main Line will face further closures over Easter. And today it said it would also have to close sections on as many as 13 weekends this summer.
The full article contains 385 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
