Rail firm fined £2.4m over planning

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The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) said it was imposing the fine after concluding that NR had breached its network licence in its handling of the resignalling at Portsmouth.

The ORR said NR had failed adequately to evaluate and mitigate the risks associated with the project, and to manage its contractor in line with best practice.

The ORR went on: "In particular, NR failed to consider and plan for the possibility of an extended overrun of the commissioning works, and the consequential effect on passengers.

ORR chief executive Bill Emery said: "Network Rail's planning and risk assessment of the Portsmouth resignalling project fell well short of the standard we expect. We have concluded this is a moderately serious breach affecting many passengers.

"Similar future breaches elsewhere on the network would have an even greater impact on passengers and train operators.

"We intend to impose a penalty to provide a strong incentive to NR to help ensure it conducts robust risk assessments that reflect the potential impact on third parties and puts in place appropriate management and mitigation measures."

Mr Emery went on: "We consider that a £2.4 million fine is proportionate for this breach and is in line with our policy. We also consider that imposing this fine will reinforce the requirement that NR must meet its commitment to apply fully the lessons it has learnt here to future decisions."

NR is currently waiting to hear the conclusions of the full report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) into the February Cumbria derailment in which one passenger died.

NR has accepted the findings of the branch's interim report which blamed a faulty set of points for the derailment of the Virgin West Coast Pendolino tilting high-speed train.