Jarvis exits rail maintenance

Jarvis is to give up all its contracts for carrying out day-to-day maintenance on the rail network after informing Network Rail that it was worried about its profits and reputation.

The troubled engineering firm is being investigated for its role in the Potters Bar crash last year and a derailment in London last month.

Jarvis, which maintains a quarter of the rail network, including the busy East Coast line to Edinburgh and commuter routes in the Midlands, has been heavily criticised for the standard of its work.

Jarvis is pulling out of routine maintenance, partly because it is worried about its reputation being damaged by accidents caused by poor workmanship.

But the company will continue to be involved in major track replacement projects - including the modernisation of the West Coast line.

Network Rail will take over the maintenance contracts itself and the 3,500 engineers working on them.

Jarvis chairman, Paris Moayedi said: "The Board of Jarvis has decided to focus the business on delivering its core services to even higher standards of excellence".