Rail union RMT says the record ”14m ($28m) fine dished out to Network Rail for the New Year engineering overruns is ”pointless and counterproductive.”
Criticism has already been directed at the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) for fining a public-funded company which puts all profits back into the industry, with some suggesting it is the taxpayer who eventually stumps up.
”At the very best this is simply robbing Peter to pay Paul, but taking funds away from Network Rail when it has already seen its spending targets cut by 30% in the last five years can only make the situation worse,” said RMT general secretary Bob Crow.
The union said this penalty does not address the fundamental problems of fragmentation and reliance on private contractors ” although Network Rail has promised to recruit between 30 and 50 specialist in-house engineers in order to carry out more work itself.
”Recycling public money like this will not alter the stark fact that Network Rail remains dependent on a maze of profit-hungry contractors and subcontractors,” said Crow. ”The private sector has leeched well over ”10bn from the railways since privatisation, yet for the contractors it will be ”big business as usual.”
”The central problem remains that Network Rail needs to take proper control of its assets, and that must mean bringing its renewals contracts back in-house, as it already has with most maintenance work.”
Network Rail told ABTN it hoped the government would use this cash ”to drive additional passenger improvements”, while ORR CEO Bill Emery said that ”it is right we should impose a fine to mark the seriousness of this breach of Network Rail”s licence and send a clear message to the company”s Board and senior management.”