Corbett blames contractor's error for Hatfield crash

Balfour Beatty denies Railtrack chief executive's claim that track testing device was not properly used on disaster line

Railtrack's chief executive, Gerald Corbett, said yesterday that a railway contractor may have been to blame for last month's Hatfield disaster in which four people were killed and more than 30 injured.

Railtrack's chief executive, Gerald Corbett, said yesterday that a railway contractor may have been to blame for last month's Hatfield disaster in which four people were killed and more than 30 injured.

Mr Corbett told the Commons' Select Committee on Transport that four months before the accident an employee of the engineering company Balfour Beatty did not follow procedures when using an ultrasonic testing device for detecting the broken rails that caused the crash.

The apparatus failed to give a return signal when used to check the part of the line in question. Further tests, which should have been done subsequently, would have exposed the defective track.

Railtrack sources said later that it was possible the rail was so damaged that the signal was dissipated, instead of registering a return reading.

Sources close to Balfour Beatty maintained last night that the result of the June test was inconclusive because surface cracks and defects, known as "shelling", prevented the equipment receiving a conclusive reading.

Grinding work, ordered to remove shelling, was done in September. The investigations are centring on whether there was a second test after the shelling was removed.

On 17 October, a northbound Great North Eastern Railways express was derailed near Hatfield station in Hertfordshire, and the roof of the buffet car was torn off killing some of the passengers inside.

Mr Corbett told the committee at Portcullis House near the House of Commons that the state of the track at the site of the crash was "appalling and totally unacceptable". He added: "A multitude of things should have happened that didn't happen."

Internal reports have shown that scores of defects on the East Coast mainline had been detected but that Railtrack had failed to order speed restrictions. The track had been affected by "gauge corner cracking", a relatively new phenomenon seen in Britain, Germany and France, possibly caused by the nature of modern rolling stock.

Mr Corbett said responsibility for the accident would have to be accepted by both Railtrack and Balfour Beatty, but the cause of the tragedy would have to be established by an inquiry. "Speed restrictions should have been put in place on that stretch of line, but they weren't and we need to know why," he said.

The Railtrack chief executive said that his company was in the process of checking more than 1,800 sites throughout the system for cracks, but that so far no lines had been found that were in the same condition as the location near Hatfield.

Some 400 were still left to be checked and most of the work would be undertaken on Sunday when much of the network would be disrupted, he said.

Fresh tensions emerged between Mr Corbett and the Rail Regulator, Tom Winsor. Mr Corbett conceded that sometimes there was a conflict between performance and safety. He acknowledged that he had sent a letter to Mr Winsor in the summer in which he accused the regulator of "attempting to squeeze a quart into a pint pot". Mr Winsor's drive for higher performance from train operators took up a lot of management time, he said. The regulator has insisted there is no antagonism between producing an efficient railway and protecting passengers.

Gwyneth Dunwoody, who chairs the committee, said rail contractors were recruiting staff to work on the railways at night and that many had no experience. Some were given full track-side certificates after only three months employment. The company assured the committee that it would investigate the accusations.