Details of what caused rail engineering works to over run outside two mainline London termini over Christmas will be published later this week ahead of a Parliamentary inquiry into the disruption next Wednesday.

Thousands of passengers were forced to make alternative arrangements or faced long delays completing their journeys after works failed to complete on time near King’s Cross and Paddington stations.

Network Rail’s chief executive Mark Carne has instructed the company’s infrastructure projects director Dr Francis Paonessa to provide a report into the sequence of events and associated decision making that led to the problems. The report, due to be published on Friday, will also identify any immediate steps needed to improve works delivery.

Mr Carne has also called for “a broader industry-wide review into the timing of our major works programmes and the passenger contingency arrangements for such works”.

Transport Select Committee chair Louise Ellman MP will question Mr Carne and Network Rail’s network operations director Robin Gisby next Wednesday afternoon. She says: “I expect Network Rail to explain what went wrong and account for what happened. It is vital that the rail industry delivers a safe, high quality and efficient service to passengers. It is also vital that the public has confidence in the industry.”

Travel watchdog Passenger Focus chief executive Anthony Smith said: “The review must start to make sure that lessons are learnt and built into future projects. Why was work done on the East Coast when the West Coast was shut? How good was information provision? Given that there were also problems at Paddington, was there too much optimism in what could be achieved over Christmas? Passengers will want to know the answers.”

(Photo: Duncan at Flickr)

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