Balfour wins £565m rail contract

BALFOUR Beatty has won the biggest rail engineering contract awarded yet by Network Rail - worth about £565m - in the latest round of replacement and renewal work.

Like rival rail groups, Balfour Beatty lost millions of pounds of day-to-day maintenance work when Network Rail decided to bring those contracts in-house.

But Balfour Beatty is today celebrating winning extra work in the higher-margin contracts for rail and points replacement and renewals over five years that are currently being awarded.

In addition to its existing chunky Southern Region and East Anglia renewals contracts it has been awarded the West Anglia zone, as well as points work on the London North East line.

Balfour Beatty was the maintenance company for the Hatfield line on which a derailment killed four and injured 70 in 2000. It, Railtrack and six rail managers have been charged with corporate manslaughter and are set to go on trial next year.

Only last month, Network Rail was accused of being insensitive after awarding Jarvis engineering work on the Potters Bar line on which a 2002 derailment killed seven, a crash in which Jarvis remains under investigation.

Chief executive Mike Welton said: 'We are delighted. It is a very substantial proportion of the new renewals programme.'

Network Rail also announced a £250m five-year contract for Carillion, renewing parts of the Great Western, West Midland and North West regions.