Network Rail warns against repeat mistakes

The industry needs to overcome several of its "negative tendencies" to reduce future costs on the rail network, according to Network Rail (NR) chief executive John Armitt.

Speaking at Civils 2006, Armitt said these include a "desire by engineers to achieve optimum solutions to use the latest, albeit unproven, technology" and the "laudable, but sometimes counterproductive, desire for an even safer railway" with every incident resulting in a "plethora of well meaning recommendations, many of which add costs".

He also warned against mistakes in the past, such as on the West Coast Main Line, "where the UK has rushed into new technologies and based business decisions on their use before they are properly tested".

Armitt added that he stood by NR's decision to bring maintenance in-house, which has helped towards £1.1bn being taken out of the costs of operating and maintaining the railway infrastructure in the past two-and-a-half-years.

He also said the case for the Thameslink scheme, which forms part of NR's planned £8bn investment in enhancement projects, was "unequivocal" and that without the project going ahead "we will soon reach the point where people are prevented from commuting into London in peak hours because the system can't cope".

[Contract Journal, 06  December 2006, p 4]