Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has confirmed it will fine Network Rail a record ”14m ($27m) due to its ”systemic weaknesses in planning and execution of engineering work.”
These represent a breach of its licence the regulator said, which ignored pleas by the company to use the money on paying for track improvements.
”The board considered the representation carefully,” said ORR chief executive Bill Emery. ”We remain convinced that the systematic weaknesses we have found in Network Rail”s approach to the planning and execution of its engineering work are a serious continuing breech of its license meriting a financial penalty.”
He added that Network Rail”s proposal to mitigate the fine would ”reduce the effectiveness of the incentive that penalties place on the company to secure compliances with its license.”
Network Rail chief executive Iain Croucher commented on the fine: ”We accept the judgement and will be paying the fine shortly. We had suggested that this sum be invested to fund [network] improvements which would benefit passengers, a suggestion supported by many in the industry. We are disappointed that this won”t happen.
”Since the problems at New Year, the company has made significant changes to the way we plan and carry out big improvement work. Our focus remains tight as we continue our work building bigger, better, higher-performing railway.”