Travel by rail has become much safer since the Potters Bar rail crash in 2002, according to Network Rail.
Six people were killed and a further ten were seriously injured when a train from London to King’s Lynn derailed in May 2002.
A spokesman for the rail infrastructure owner and operator said the railway today is “almost unrecognisable since the days of Railtrack and the Potters Bar tragedy”.
He said: "Private contractors are no longer in control of the day-to-day maintenance of the nation’s rail infrastructure since Network Rail took this entire operation, involving some 15,000 people, in-house in 2004."
When the accident occurred, maintenance responsibility was out-sourced by the then infrastructure owner, Railtrack, to private contractor Jarvis.
“All of the recommendations made by both the industry’s own formal inquiry and the Health and Safety investigation have been carried out,” added the spokesman.
He said that while railways today are "safer than they have ever been", Network Rail's task remains "to learn any lessons we can to make it ever safer for passengers and those who work on the railway."
Network Rail announced today it will plead guilty to charges which were brought over the condition of tracks near the station, after an inquest last year found a points failure was to blame. The company will be sentenced next month.
When it took over from Railtrack as rail infrastructure operator in October 2002, it took on all obligations, responsibilities and liabilities.