Passengers face more rail travel misery

The Hatfield crash raised questions over the safety of UK railways

LONDON, England -- British rail travellers are enduring another weekend of delays as repairs continue on the nation's railway system.

Repairs to more than 250 miles of track and 850 sets of points across the network are likely to last well into next year despite assurances from rail infrastructure operator Railtrack that the worst is over.

"Work carried out over the last three weekends has addressed problems at some of the network's tightest bottlenecks. So although a similar mileage of track will be relaid this weekend across the network there will be less disruption," Railtrack said in a statement on Saturday.

Railtrack said it would lay about 17 miles (27 km) of track over the weekend. It has already replaced 75 miles of track since last month's Hatfield rail crash which killed four people.

The crash was thought by investigators to have been caused by a broken rail, and Railtrack imposed speed limits around the country while it carried out emergency repairs, bringing massive disruption to services.

In October 1999, 31 people died and more than 200 were injured near London's Paddington Station when one train jumped a red light and hit another.

The latest travel chaos triggered the resignation of Railtrack boss Gerald Corbett on Friday.

Railtrack has confirmed that Corbett will receive a six-figure golden handshake following a meeting of the company's compensation board.

"It will be in the region of six figures, not a million (pounds) like some people have said," a Railtrack spokeswoman said.

Earlier this week UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman said rail operators could have compensation packages for some passengers in place as early as next week.

Railtrack has said that around £150 million ($214 million) will be paid in compensation to train operators for disrupted services with a further £100 million to be spent on laying new track. Blair has urged the operators to pass compensation on to travellers.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Railtrack

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