Bridge call

On the day that beleaguered Railtrack finally reached the end of the line, experts demanded that Tony Blair did not forget his pledge to halt the squabbling which has previously hindered vital repair work.

The Prime Minister exclusively told The Northern Echo earlier this year that he would personally intervene in the row, which had long been running between local authorities, the Highways Agency and Railtrack.

Now, with Railtrack removed from administration and taken over by the non-profit making Network Rail, the way has been paved for a £21bn cash injection for Britain's railways.

But safety campaigners yesterday stressed that the need to avoid a repeat of the Selby rail disaster, which killed ten people last February, had to be kept in the public eye.

The tragedy occurred when a Land Rover veered off the M62 and into the path of an on-coming express train at Great Heck, North Yorkshire.

Structural engineer John Knapton, visiting professor at the University of Ulster, said: "The big issue is now whether the records of who is liable for bridges get lost in this re-organisation.

"There is always the danger that they could want to sit down, form new committees and start the whole process of deciding who is responsible all over again.

"But the good news is that Network Rail will have their eyes on providing a good service, rather than profits."

The unseemly "who pays for what" dispute had held up improvements to bridges throughout the North-East and North Yorkshire, as uncertainty over Railtrack's future meant it made little or no contributions to repairs.

Many councils have funded urgently needed work themselves, despite bridges in their area being owned by Railtrack.

The Northern Echo first exposed the scandalous state of the region's railway bridges last year, in the wake of the Selby crash.

We visited 50 bridges on the East Coast Main Line, between Newcastle and York, and found the majority to have woefully inadequate barriers to shield drivers from the tracks.