UK: Chiltern Line upgrade 'delayed by cost & poor planning'

[John Ashworth]

Chiltern Line upgrade 'delayed by cost claims and poor planning'

Confidential Network Rail report critical of £250m revamp aimed at cutting London to Birmingham journey times by 20 minutes

* Dan Milmo, transport correspondent
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 March 2011 16.02 GMT

A decade after the west coast mainline upgrade entered the annals of engineering mishaps, another section of the London-to-Birmingham rail network is being hobbled by a multimillion pound revamp.

A £250m upgrade of the Chiltern Line that should cut journey times between London and Birmingham by 20 minutes is beset by cost claims and poor planning, according to a confidential industry report. Network Rail, the owner of Britain's tracks and stations, is now helping Chiltern Railways complete the project, in an apparent setback to the government policy of giving train operators engineering work in the hope that they will be cheaper and more efficient.

Last year the Evergreen 3 project was hailed as "good news" by the then transport secretary, Lord Adonis, who said the programme to add new lines on the second most popular rail link between London and Birmingham would significantly improve services. Ministers had pinned considerable hope on Evergreen 3 because Chiltern Railways was taking over Network Rail's role of paying for and overseeing the work. If the project is completed on time and on budget, it would encourage the government to break Network Rail's monopoly over maintenance and engineering work as it strives to reduce the £5bn annual state subsidy of the rail industry.

However, a Network Rail report into the project, seen by the Guardian, claims that the project is behind schedule, poorly planned and hampered by a cost claim lodged by Chiltern Railways contractor BAM Nuttall (BAMN). Last month Chiltern said it had postponed the May launch of its new-look service until "late summer". In a report that delves into the events leading up to the postponement, a senior Network Rail manager alleged that the cost claim, lack of resources and inadequate planning were at fault. The report added: "We need to be convinced that BAMN is in a position to properly resource up and deliver this programme. BAMN is concerned about being paid their perceived entitlement to the cost of work done, though a large part of these costs appear in a significant claim against Chiltern, with much work still to do."

The report added: "There has been no communication with the travelling public."

Calling for a complete overhaul of how the project is managed, the report stated: "Proper planning must be in place and managed, which is not the case presently."

BAMN declined to comment, although an industry source said the claim was a normal part of the contractual process and was not hindering work.

Chiltern, whose main shareholder is the German state rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, denied that the Evergreen 3 project was in trouble. Adrian Shooter, Chiltern's chairman, said that the May deadline could have been reached but the company decided to spare passengers from unnecessary disruption.

"There has been an awful lot of work done in the last few weeks to catch up, improve things, and get things right. It probably would have resulted in the work being done by 22 May. But I am not prepared to say to my passengers 'it is probably going to be okay.'"