Network Rail had pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety Act 1974 after a prosecution brought by the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road (Orr), before the multimillion-pound fine was handed down on Friday at Swansea crown court.
Nick Millington, the route director for Network Rail Wales and Borders, said: “We know that the tragic deaths of our colleagues, Gareth Delbridge and Michael ‘Spike’ Lewis, should never have happened on our railway and that has been reflected by today’s judgment.
It took formal enforcement action to require Network Rail to improve worker safety, and said there had since been a “step change” in safety.
The Orr said its investigation of the incident found systematic and wide-ranging safety failures by Network Rail to protect workers from trains, with echoes of findings from previous incidents.
He said: “The rail industry needs to do all it practically can to help each worker get home safely every day … This will require a relentless, collective, industry focus to continue to drive down risk to ensure that tragic incidents such as this are never repeated.”.
