'Wasted' closures delay thousands of rail travellers

Tens of thousands of rail passengers will suffer needless delays this weekend because one in five line closures are "wasted".

Hours of unnecessary disruption are caused because the same stretch of track is closed at different times while separate contractors carry out work, Railtrack has admitted.

Maintenance companies often refuse to "share" the line closure, or "possession" as it is called in the industry, so the line must be shut on different occasions to accommodate the work.

Nick Pollard, Railtrack's director in charge of possessions, told Rail magazine that while the company had tolerated the practice, he was determined to stop it.

The volume of maintenance work had increased since the Hatfield derailment in October 2000, but there was no need for more line closures – the work just needed to be organised properly, he told the magazine.

Mr Pollard's comments come after the rail freight company Freightliner alleged that because all possessions on the West Coast Main Line London-Glasgow route were organised by companies involved in route modernisation, the needs of routine maintenance companies were ignored.

This weekend, passengers face the second of 18 weekends of chaos on the Anglo-Scottish line, with the frequently delayed work to upgrade the route forcing the closure of services between Hemel Hempstead and Milton Keynes. Virgin is laying on coaches between the two towns, adding about an hour or so to journeys.

Disruption caused by line closures this weekend will also affect 19 other areas where maintenance and improvement projects are under way.

Mr Pollard admitted that Railtrack had failed to get a grip with the issue, allowing contractors to control line closures. He said Railtrack intended to recruit 120 specialist "possession managers" to make the best use of closures. The company wanted as much work as possible completed when tracks were taken out of service.

A senior director at the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) registered "serious concern" over the rising cost of major projects to improve the network.

Peter Hansford, executive director of infrastructure at the SRA, said the authority was attempting to develop a mechanism which reduced "cost creep" and minimised delays. The cost to upgrade the west coast route has risen from £2.2bn three years ago to £11bn.

In an article inInfrastructure Journal, Mr Hansford said there was a need for "more transparency" in the way money was spent on projects.

John Armitt, Railtrack's chief executive, has said the company would not take maintenance of the infrastructure back in-house. However, he has indicated that it would take full responsibility when crashes are caused by the state of the track.

Mr Armitt told Construction News magazine that Railtrack would take over responsibility for "who does what and when" on the railways. He said that as a consequence of their reduced role, contractors' profit margins would also be cut under a new regime to be introduced next month.

Railtrack, which was put into administration last October, sold its core railways business to the government-backed firm Network Rail in June. It will eventually sell its property portfolio and close itself down.