Network Rail must now act

4.12.02

MP blames poor rail maintenance for local train problems

Kingston and Surbiton's Lib Dem MP, Edward Davey, has taken constituents' complaints on local rail services to senior managers at Network Rail (Railtrack's successor). Edward Davey believes a major cause of the continuing unreliability of local train services is poor rail maintenance and is pointing the finger at Network Rail's contractor Balfour Beatty.

Edward Davey has written to Ian Coucher, the Deputy Chief Executive of Network Rail and urged him to tackle the infrastructure problems that bedevil local train services and to sort out the local maintenance contract. Commenting Edward Davey said:

"Network Rail can't hide behind Government policy failures any more - it's time they took responsibility for the delays people suffer on local train services.

"While South West Trains have hardly performed well, it's poor rail maintenance that causes most of the cancellations and delays local commuters face. The blame for those lies squarely with Network Rail and its local contractors, Balfour Beatty.

"Network Rail have been using Balfour Beatty to repair and maintain local tracks, signals and points on a short-term rolling contract for some time. There is no permanence and therefore little long term investment in people or plant.

"I've simply lost patience with all the excuses and promises. It's time for some action by Network Rail to sort this out.

"All I'm asking for is that the local rail network is properly maintained. Why do we still have so many circuit failures, points failures and broken rails? If Network Rail and their contractor were doing their job such incidents would be a rarity rather than commonplace.

"It's time for Network Rail to stop passing the buck and meet their responsibilities."