Why did Network Rail not check the points nationally LAST week?

Question

One dead, 100 injured, a beautiful train destroyed.

Answer 1

Why are they sub-contracting all the work out to the same company that caused the previous accident 5 years ago?

Answer 2

Under the old system which seems to have died the death with modernisation and privatisation they had gangers who worked in teams of about 6, whose job it was to patrol a section of track every day and carry out repairs themselves or call in the engineers with the heavy equipment if needed.

Thus faults in points etc. could be quickly spotted and put right.

They have done away with this system and all the worse for that as these were experienced men with trained eyes and their expertise was invaluable for safe working.

Farming out repairs to private contractors is imo a big mistake. The old nationalised system may have had its faults but it had one big advantage - it put safety first.

Answer 3

It is impossible for Network Rail to check points nationally every week as there are so many across the network. They are checked  on rota basis, with most attention paid to those most used. The points in this case were rarely used. I'm not going to speculate any more on what happened, however, as no one yet knows. The train isn't destroyed. Richard Branson or one of the senior managers from Virgin Rail made it clear in an interview that it will be removed and repaired. The amazing thing is that it wasn't damaged irreparably and that more lives weren't lost.

In response to a previous answer, I don't believe they are contracting work to Jarvis who were sub contracted for maintenance in the Potter's bar area were an accident occurred 5 years ago. Jarvis pulled out of contracting for rail maintenance. It has been taken back in house and Network Rail is run my railwaymen, unlike the privatised RailTrack which was run by money men.

And don't forget, this was the first rail accident with a fatality, caused apparently by the railway's fault (e.g not by some idiot trying to beat level crossing barriers) in 5 years. One lady, sadly died. Statistically, at least 10 times that number of people will have died on the roads since the accident.

Later - once again there is an answer suggesting that maintenance work is 'contracted out' This is totally erroneous - as I said earlier, Network Rail has taken maintenance back in house. The answer which suggests that up until the demise of BR there were gangers walking the track on a daily basis is also wrong. This had long since stopped.

Answer 4

that's a bit like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted

Answer 5

Strange as it seems they were. in the sense that Network rail has teams that spend all their time checking the state of the track and the condition of points . This is part of an ongoing continuous maintenance programme. Whilst it would appear that a defective set may have caused the accident ,this is the first major incident for over five years during which millions and millions for miles have Been travelled on the railway without an incident of this nature occurring . This is a terrible thing to have happened and my sympathies genuinely go out to those involved but lest not blow this out of proportion, lets just learn from it and try to ensure that it does not happen again

Answer 6

Like the NHS, the UK rail system drains money but fails to meet an acceptable minimum standard of performance.

One assumes that the vast subsidies and excessive fares end up as profit for the operators, contractors and equipment suppliers instead of building a safe and efficient rail transport system.

Only when the law relating to the negligence of company directors is tightened up will systems be put in place to ensure that performance is properly monitored and reported throughout organisations that have great responsibility for public safety.

Answer 7

i dont think they would have been able to check every set of points nationally in one week. But yes i can see where you coming from if they had have checked them there would not have been any train crash

Answer 8

Every Night there ARE about a Few THOUSAND PEOPLE walking along the railway lines throughout the UK checking every centimeter of track. Everyone screams when we close the lines to do this, and then everyone screams if anything goes wrong, just two nights before this accident a member of Network Rails Staff got killed checking the lines, and do you hear the public screaming about that? I think not. Unfortunately we are damed if we do and damed if we don't!

Also you have to remember that the set of points could have failed at any point of time, just like even though you service your car once a year it can still breakdown, have a puncher, the exhaust falls off and anything else can go wrong!

Answer 9

The people who run Network Rail are not railway men.  They have MBA, not BSc(Eng).  Everything is done to a cost, so these things will simply continue to happen until the whole way the railway is run is changed.

Answer 10

Even if they had, the points could have failed between then and the time of the crash (assuming the points were to blame, which we don't know yet).

Safety is taken very seriously indeed on the railway, which is why is is the safest form of everyday transport by a long way.

Slagging off the railway industry is very easy to do, especially if you know sod all about how it works.  How are you qualified in track maintenance, exactly?