Railtrack: we don't check contractors' work

Railtrack admitted today it does not check maintenance work done on the track by its contractors.

It said the checking of work done by contractor Jarvis in the Potters Bar area, or anywhere else, would not be supervised or routinely examined afterwards.

Railtrack said under the terms of contracts inherited at the time of privatisation of the railways from 1994 to 1996, there was no obligation for it to check that contractors' work had been done properly - despite six other crashes costing 54 lives since 1996.

Although it operated a system of random checks, a Railtrack spokesman said: "The responsibility for safety and quality of work rests with the contractors. We are reliant on them being professional."

However, in a review of operating conditions following the Hatfield disaster in 2000, when four people died, Railtrack undertook to extend checks on maintenance work.

This has still not been introduced and is not expected to be phased in fully until the end the year. The guidelines were not in place at the time of the Potters Bar crash on Friday, which killed seven people.

Railtrack is now reviewing the procedures it follows when a complaint is made about the state of the track or equipment. This is how a complaint is dealt with at present:

? Complaints about track or equipment can be made to train staff, station staff, Railtrack's 24-hour helpline or the Health and Safety Executive.

? If the complaint is made to station staff or staff onboard the train, the driver is consulted and he or she determines whether there is a problem. If the driver believes the complaint is valid, he or she will inform their union and forward the complaint to Railtrack.

? Railtrack logs any complaints on a computer and forwards it to a member of Railtrack's engineering team. The team contacts the complainant or the driver to try to determine exactly where on the line the problem is. It does not carry out any work itself but instructs its maintenance contractor to deal with it. In the case of the Potters Bar crash, this was Jarvis plc.

? Jarvis sends a qualified staff track inspector to examine the problem. Railtrack is informed of the prognosis but it is the contractor's responsibility to take action. A work schedule is drawn up by Jarvis with a classification as to how urgently the work needs to be carried out and whether speed restrictions need to be imposed.

? A Jarvis signalling maintenance team will then take over the work. The team is directly employed by the contractor and holds qualifications and licences recognised by the Institute of Railway Signalling Engineers. But maintenance work is not supervised or checked except by the working team at the time.

?The track will only be checked for faults during a routine patrol by the contractor, which is expected to check the whole track once a month. The contractor looks for any visible faults on the track, including the points. Railtrack supervision is on a random basis.

?Sub-contracted staff are bought in to move rails, lay track and to do other nonengineering work. This is supervised directly by Jarvis. It is this that alarms the unions. Sometimes, says Bob Crow, the sub-contractors use casual staff with no experience whatsover.