Watchdog warns Railtrack over maintenance

Railtrack's policy on maintenance could be "storing up serious problems for the future", Rail Regulator Tom Winsor warned today.

Railtrack's policy on maintenance could be "storing up serious problems for the future", Rail Regulator Tom Winsor warned today.

Announcing plans to change the company's network licence, Mr Winsor highlighted the way he said the company was renewing track less frequently.

Railtrack has come under fire over its maintenance work, particularly in the wake of the Paddington rail disaster, in October

Mr Winsor, in his official response to a highly critical report on the company's track record, said that "by altering its asset maintenance policy so as to extend the average age of assets before they are renewed, Railtrack may well be focusing too much on the short term and storing up serious problems for the future.

"In these and many other respects, Railtrack should be leading the industry, taking a long-term view and investing wisely and well in the care and maintenance of its assets, as well as enhancing them," Mr Winsor said.

Earlier this month, Mr Winsor began enforcement action against Railtrack over the £2 billion upgrade of the London-Scotland West Coast line.

He said the company had failed to complete a strategic review of the upgrade of the line, on which Virgin chief Richard Branson plans to run tilting trains by 2002.

Mr Winsor said the changes to the network licence were needed to "strengthen Railtrack's public accountability".

There were shortcomings in the existing system - mainly because when it was granted in March 1994 the assumption was that the firm would remain in public ownership, with its directors appointed by and responsible to Government ministers.

The licence will be amended to include three new operating conditions, including a "reliable and comprehensive" database of Railtrack's network and the condition of its assets.

The other changes will be the introduction of an "efficient and effective" regime to monitor and report on the state of these assets, and a binding code of practice over Railtrack's dealings with dependent customers.

Mr Winsor said: "By making the improvements which this document outlines, the company will have greater clarity, stability and predictability in regulation.

"It will know far better what is expected of it, and so will its customers and those who rely on it. And it will know these things in advance and so be able to plan its business with confidence."

The regulator said he expected Railtrack to respond "positively and constructively" to the initiatives - and issued a stern warning on the consequences of inaction.

"If I am not satisfied with the company's response and its performance, I will not shrink from justified and proportionate use of the powers available to me," he said.

"Railtrack now has the opportunity to demonstrate urgently and beyond doubt that it takes its public interest responsibilities every bit as seriously as the public which it was established to serve."