Railtrack fury over crash accusation

THE row between Railtrack and Jarvis over who was responsible for the Potters Bar rail crash escalated this weekend. Railtrack is furious with the contractor's latest public attempt to blame it for May's accident in which seven people died.

A Railtrack source said: 'There is a view that Jarvis's concern over its share price is taking precedence over common sense.' Jarvis maintained the track through Potters Bar station. It claimed that Railtrack was alerted to a problem on the line hours before the derailment, but sent workers to inspect the wrong section of track.

Earlier, Jarvis had issued a stock market statement raising the possibility of sabotage as a cause of the tragedy. It claimed that photographs indicated that inner nuts on a key rear stretcher bar had been adjusted in the 48 hours before the accident, during which no maintenance was carried out. 'Consequently sabotage cannot be discounted,' Jarvis said.

Comment by Jarvis would not have been expected until a report on the investigation into the crash has been published.

Jarvis is headed by Paris Moayedi who, since the crash, has received a £150,000 bonus and a £95,000 pay rise, taking his salary to £425,000. The company earns 40% of its profit from railways and is a preferred bidder to maintain London's Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly Tube lines.

The shares, which stood at 498p just before the Potters Bar disaster, closed at 269 1/2p on Friday.