Wasn't PBR due to a late cancellation of a track inspection on the part of Network Rail, or something? Which would then be repeated at Grayrigg?
After the Hatfield derailment was resolved Jarvis were asked to take over the Maintenance Contract at short notice from the incumbent Contractor.
The handover was shall we say a far from pleasant experience to the extent that the offices and equipment were taken out of every office at midnight and new equipment had to be installed.
As the Contract was started, the full depth of the problems were just being discovered, including the poor quality of records and maintenance, something that Railtrack at the time had allowed to occur.
There were no procedures or standards produced by Railtrack relating to the correct maintenance settings for the points and the problemn with loose nuts was well known to Railtrack, but they had taken no action to investigate or issue any technical directive.
Railtrack staff failed to correctly forward a reported rough ride over 2182 points the evening before, and so Jarvis staff were sent to the wrong location and the wrong line.
Following the accident Jarvis instigated its own checks on every set of points under its maintenance control, something that Railtrack belatedly did for the remainder of the Country much later. No other points maintained by Jarvis were found to be other than in good condition.
HMRI issued a Prohibition Order on a set of points maintained by a different Contractor on another route for points which were in a worse condition than those at Potters Bar.
Jarvis took public liability in order to close out the matter for the people injured otherwise this would have gone on for years. The reasons why the points were in the condition they were have never been established. This is not a open and shut case had it been then Jarvis would have been Prosecuted. The fact that they still continue in business and continue to win Contracts says much.
