Network Rail To Face Select Committee

Network Rail's directors are to go before the Transport Select Committee to explain the why the West Coast Main Line disrupted the travel of 60,000 passengers a day last week.

Last Thursday the company issued a statement saying that chief executive Iain Coucher will chair a "high-level" meeting next week about the delays at Rugby.He said: "I will be summoning our project managers, Bechtel, and the principal contractors involved to attend so they can personally explain to me what has gone wrong. "

Now a Select Committee headed by Gwyneth Dunwoody is expected to widen the inquiry to include Network Rail's relationship with its contractors and with the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), management's conduct during the crisis and director's entitlement to bonuses.
Dunwoody said "I think we will be making the odd inquiry...Network Rail have only got themselves to blame for a lot of this."

More than 250,000 passengers were hit by last week’s problems. Late-running engineering works closed the West Coast Main Line at Rugby for three days longer than planned, and also delayed the planned reopening of London’s Liverpool Street station, used by thousands of City commuters every day.