Mark Phillips, CEO of the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), an independent safety and research body, said: “This tragic accident was a catalyst to completely rethink track worker safety.
Issues surrounding Network Rail’s track safety policy had been known since 2017 but the judge said by 2019 the steps taken had “not resolved the concerns”.
Mr Jowett said the policy – called Standard 19 – for how track work should be carried out was “substantially based on a number of unsuccessful initiatives since 2014”, following previous deaths in 2011 and 2012.
“Our research and analysis helped Network Rail make significant safety improvements, with our statistics showing the number of track worker near misses with trains reducing from 60 per year in 2018/19 to 22 in 2023/4.”.
In a statement, Nick Millington, route director at Network Rail Wales & Borders, said the “tragic” deaths of Mr Delbridge and Mr Lewis “should never have happened on our railway”.
