Hatfield inspections

Greg Morse’s article on Hatfield ( RAIL 915) was both sobering and informative, but there is one area where my opinion diverges.

It was never the intention that Railtrack had much engineering expertise. It was always intended that the experience resided with the contractor, and on privatisation BR engineering resources were allocated as such.

Balfour Beatty was heavily fined for the Heathrow tunnel collapse. BAA (Balfour’s employer and the owner of the airport) was not blamed because it was not expected to have the engineering expertise to supervise the project. This model is what rail privatisation was based on, and it worked in other industries with similar safety requirements to rail.

However, following a change of government in 1997, Railtrack’s engineering responsibility increased. But it lacked the expertise required to take this on and the situation had barely improved by the time of Hatfield.

Added to the mix was Railtrack’s attitude to access to the railway through possessions. Without suitable engineering expertise with sufficient clout, there was an imbalance. Railtrack ran the maintenance contracts commercially and overruled the contractor when possessions were requested to remedy maintenance issues, because the TOC (train operating company) and revenue from the TOC came first.

I worked for British Rail and transferred to Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance on privatisation, but not the East Coast Main Line.

Railtrack had the purse strings and control of possessions. However, the RT1 maintenance contract that we had with Railtrack had been written with the expectation that the contractor had the engineering expertise. Consequently, we had the final say on safety.

Eventually, in our area, things came to a head. Fortunately, we had the combination of a very strong character heading our Engineers, and some relatively minor lines. After imposing several speed restrictions, Railtrack took it seriously when we threatened to close a line and the balance of power redressed itself somewhat.

But the East Coast Main Line has a very high profile and this threat would have been much more difficult to implement. Most of those tried and acquitted of manslaughter for Hatfield were colleagues that I knew well, and I also knew people who reported to them whose role is mentioned in the article.

I know Balfour Beatty wasn’t without fault, but they all tried really hard to do the right thing at Hatfield and couldn’t get in - not even for inspections in daylight.

Steve Pearce, Burton on Trent