Network Rail 'over-ambitious' on Christmas upgrade

Network Rail chief Iain Coucher has admitted that the maintenance company was "over-ambitious for the right reasons" in scheduling several big upgrades to the rail network at Christmas.

Speaking in front of a Commons transport celect committee, Coucher said that a shortage of overhead line engineers resulted in work on the West Coast Mainline in the Rugby area overunning by four days, while Liverpool Street station was closed for a day longer than expected.

Coucher said that Network Rail was taken by surprise when half the overhead line engineers on the roster for work on the London to Glasgow route did not turn up. It then had trouble finding additional resources to plug the gaps.

He also confirmed that Network Rail would now take overhead line engineering work back in house. "Going forward we will be doing much more of this ourselves, rather than relying on agency people," he said.

The rail regulator could charge Network Rail millions of pounds for the delay, with an expected £10m in compensation to passengers and train operators.