Hung over workers believed to be to blame for New Year rail chaos

Jan 24 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

RAIL chiefs still do not know whether hung-over staff who rang in sick are to blame for the New Year chaos that shut down the Liverpool to London line.

Grilled by MPs on the fiasco caused by engineering over-runs at Rugby, Network Rail blamed the agency workers who “let down” passengers by failing to show up for work.

It was revealed that more than half of 65 engineers putting in new overhead lines went absent – which meant work due to end on New Year’s Eve dragged on for four more days. But, three weeks later, despite knowing the names of every engineer, Network Rail was unable to explain why at least 35 skipped work.

There have been persistent rumours that much of the problem was caused by the workers being too hung-over from the Christmas celebrations.

Yesterday’s inquiry also heard rumours they were offered thousands of pounds to switch to other holiday work elsewhere on the network.

More than 250,000 passengers had their journeys disrupted by the over-runs which – Network Rail admitted yesterday – will cost more than £10m in compensation

Giving evidence to the transport select committee yesterday, Net-work Rail denied staff had turned up drunk and been turned away.

But, asked to explain what went wrong, its chief executive Iain Coucher said: “We thought we had secured the staff. Some of those people on the original list didn’t show up.”

And Thomas McCarthy, vice-president of programme manag-ers Bechtel, said: “We have not been able to get good reasons why they did not show up for work.”

The inquiry revealed an extra-ordinary picture of complication and confusion in thefragmented rail industry.

Network Rail employed Bechtel, which employed contractor Jarvis which used recruitment agency Ogilvy Global to find the agency staff.

Yesterday, Network Rail con-firmed reports it now intends to strip contractors of responsibility for key rail upgrades, by taking much of the work in-house.

Much of the MPs’ anger focused on the failure of Network Rail chairman Sir Ian McAllister, who earns £250,000 for a three-day week, to take personal control.

Asked if he was in his office during the crisis, Sir Ian replied: “The office is where I am. I am in constant contact.”

But Riverside MP Louise Ellman asked: “Don’t you feel you should be the public face of Network Rail in circumstances like this? You didn’t think this was something special?”

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is investigating whether Network Rail breached its licence and should be fined .