Ian Coucher, Chief Executive of Network Rail, has said he does not know why
half a specialist team working on the West Coast Mainline over New Year did
not turn up for work.
At a House of Commons inquiry he said that attempts to recruit others at
short notice had proved "fruitless".
Planned engineering work between Rugby and Northampton, which should have
been completed by 30 December, overran by four days causing chaos for
thousands of passengers. Network Rail could now have to pay up to £10m compensation to passengers as
well as facing a fine from rail regulators.
The Commons transport committee heard rail specialists Jarvis had supplied a
list of specialist overhead linesmen it would be using for the work at Rugby
but up to half the team were not there at one point.
The MPs were told that so far, Jarvis had not provided a "satisfactory
justification" for this and that there was no penalty clause in Jarvis'
contract.
Mr Coucher said: "They will get paid for some work, but not all of it, but
there's no penalty - we can't flow down the extra costs that we incur down
to them."
There was no penalty because normally if the work is not carried out
satisfactorily then the company does not get additional work.
He also admitted Network Rail had been over ambitious in its New Year
programme, but said the firm had been desperate to deliver its work in a way
which did not require extra time.
However he had praise for his own staff saying: "When we called on Network
Rail’s maintenance people they came and they worked and they were loyal and
they worked so hard we almost had to sent them home for their own safety."
