Istvan

The rail minister has apologised for suggesting Network Rail may withhold contracts from a company employing an engineer who described Euston station as “unsafe”. Lord Hendy said the tone of his letter to consultancy Systra UK “fell well short of what should be expected”. In his previous role as Network Rail chairman, he wrote to the company’s chief executive Nick Salt in May in relation to a media interview by railway engineer Gareth Dennis. He asked Mr Salt “what action are you taking?” in relation to Mr Dennis, who claimed Euston is sometimes “unsafe” because of overcrowding. The penultimate sentence of his letter stated: “Finding a potential supplier criticising a possible client reflects adversely on your likelihood of doing business with us or our supply chain.” Mr Dennis was subsequently sacked by Systra UK. In his first public comments on the issue since it emerged in August, Lord Hendy told the Railway Industry Association’s annual conference in central London: “There was a sentence at the end (of the letter) where the tone of it fell well short of what should be expected, and for that I apologise. “And what I would say is that no contractor has or will be penalised for employees raising concerns about safety, whether they raise them through NR (Network Rail), ORR (Office of Rail and Road) or DfT (Department for Transport) for that matter, or confidentially through Ciras (a confidential safety hotline for transport) if that’s what they want to do. “The employment decisions about the person concerned are a matter for his employer.”