TRAIN punctuality will not recover fully from the Hatfield crash until 2010, Network Rail has calculated.

The not-for-profit company created by the Government to replace Railtrack expects to take another seven years to cut the delays it causes back to the levels of 2000.

Tom Winsor, the Rail Regulator, told the Commons Transport Select Committee that Network Rail was causing 70 per cent more delays than before the crash in October 2000. In the year to April 2000, Railtrack caused 7.8 million minutes of delays. This year Network Rail expects to cause 13.25 million minutes. It plans a 20 per cent improvement by 2006 to 11.3 million minutes.

Network Rail causes about 55 per cent of train delays and train operators cause the rest. In the first three months of this year 80 per cent of trains were on time, according to figures published last week. In the year before the Hatfield crash, 88 per cent of trains were on time.

Michael Beswick, Mr Winsor’s chief rail adviser, said Network Rail was wasting money by replacing rails without replacing ageing sleepers and ballasts. Engineers would have to return later and lift the rails again.

Mr Winsor said Railtrack’s engineers had “thought Christmas had come early” when the company was placed in administration in October 2001. They had exploited the lifting of cost controls to recommend lots of unnecessary work.

Iain Coucher, the deputy chief executive of Network Rail, defended the performance bonuses of up to £1 million which Network Rail’s directors can earn this year. He said that it would be a challenge to reach 84 per cent of trains arriving on time, the level which will trigger the maximum bonus.

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