NETWORK Rail has admitted New Year chaos on the main Glasgow-London line was caused by specialist engineers not working hard enough – rather than being in short supply.
The firm said its own poor management of the workers involved was responsible for their poor productivity, which caused a four-day over-run this month.
Delays to the major upgrading project on the west coast main line near Rugby in the Midlands ca
used misery to some 200,000 passengers.
Network Rail said at the time it had underestimated the number of engineers required to complete the job. However, it revealed yesterday: "The work planned to be done was deliverable with the resources allocated, however poor productivity from overhead line workers meant the project slipped. Poor manpower supervision and management on-site added to the problems."
The firm said it was then unable to draft in sufficient reinforcements because they were busy with projects elsewhere.
It pledged yesterday to manage such projects much more closely, and recruit more of its own engineers rather than rely on contractors. "Military-style command posts" will be set up for all future major works to "deliver clearer lines of authority".
Iain Coucher, Network Rail's chief executive, said: "We let passengers and freight users down and I'm determined that it won't happen again. That is why we will be taking these far-reaching and decisive measures in the weeks and months ahead."
Nigel Harris, the managing editor of RAIL magazine, said better management was crucial because Network Rail bringing routine maintenance in-house had not prevented last year's fatal Cumbria rail crash.
The full article contains 275 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
