Network Rail fails to check safety of bridges

Train passengers are being put at risk as infrastructure inspections are not being carried out, says regulator

RAIL passengers are at risk from crumbling bridges and tunnels because safety checks are not being properly completed by Network Rail staff, the industry regulator has warned. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) told

Network Rail it is failing in its responsibilities to inspect the 70,000 bridges, tunnels and other pieces of rail infrastructure across Britain’s train network.

Regulators said Network Rail was not using new technology such as drones to check for problems. It comes after more than a year of strike action by members of the RMT union to resist reform of what company bosses had described as “archaic” working practices.

John Larkinson, the regulator’s chief executive, has written to Andrew Haines, the head of Network Rail, to warn that the shortcomings could lead to a safety incident. Union leaders have sought to block the rollout of technology to replace manual inspections by engineers walking along the tracks.

Mick Lynch, the head of the RMT, has previously claimed that this would create safety concerns. Rail bosses say the opposite and claim it is the latest example of the union blocking much needed change to prop up its membership.

Network Rail and the ORR have been in discussions to clear an inspections backlog for two years.

Mr Larkinson said: “Progress has not been good enough and, in some cases, compliance rates have deteriorated. If Network Rail does not complete the overall examination process at the required intervals, faults could be undetected (or detected but not properly assessed).

“In some cases this could lead to a safety incident. It could also result in speed restrictions being put in place to mitigate the safety risk, making it more difficult to run trains on time.”

Network Rail must now submit plans by the end of June as to how it will catch up on inspections after allowing a blacklog to build up over the past two years. Martin Frobisher, Network Rail’s safety and engineering director, said: “Since the ORR first raised this matter in 2021 we have been developing and enacting recovery measures to ensure structures examinations are up to date.

“Between February and April 2023 there has been a 9pc improvement in examination non-compliance.

“We recognise there is still work to be done to build on these improvements and we are liaising closely with the ORR to get back on track.

“A plan will be submitted to the ORR by the end of June.”

A year-long industrial dispute between state-owned Network Rail and trade union leaders drew to a close earlier this year. A separate row between unions and train companies is ongoing. Network Rail and the train operators are targeting £2bn of annual savings to balance the books and end the biggest public subsidy outside of the energy sector.

Network Rail has made “insufficient progress to implement the use of available technology (for example drones or sonar scour monitoring technology)”, Mr Larkinson said.

Mr Lynch said at the end of last year: “We will move to risk-based maintenance rather than planned preventative maintenance. So they’re saying, ‘Wait till it breaks and see what happens.’”