Rail disaster alert after faulty repair

A major safety blunder could have led to a London commuter train or high-speed express being derailed.

Engineering giant Mowlem used the "wrong sort" of clamps and steel plates to make a temporary repair joining rail ends together on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) at Bushey, near Watford.

The track is used by Silverlink commuter services and Virgin highspeed trains between London and Scotland. As dozens of trains sped over the faulty work, the clamps and plates worked loose and one end of the rail dropped by about two inches.

A Silverlink train driver reported a "rough ride" to his control room and the fault was discovered. It was only by chance that trains had dropped on to the lower section of track rather than hitting a raised section, which could have caused a disaster.

Now Mowlem has been sacked from its £4million-a-year contract for renewal work by Network Rail.

A spokesman for NR said: "Our engineers found a small part of the new track that was not up to standard-We immediately rectified the fault and launched a full and detailed investigation."

The investigation into the 10 January incident concluded there were "weaknesses in the management and implementation of the work".

NR decided not to renew Mowlem's contract for the line, which expired on 1 April. The company is also suspended from carrying out track renewal work across the national network.

Mowlem said it had co-operated fully with the NR investigation. It denied that safety had been compromised by the fault.