New date for Potters Bar train crash court case

A new date has been set for the court case in which Network Rail (NR) and maintenance company Jarvis Rail face health and safety charges over the 2002 Potters Bar train crash which claimed seven lives.

Brought by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), the case had been due to begin at Watford Magistrates' Court in Hertfordshire on January 7.

But the ORR said today that proceedings will now start at Watford on February 21.

Jarvis, which was maintenance contractor for the section of track at Potters Bar, went into administration in March 2010.

Today, the ORR said Jarvis's administrators had provided the necessary consent "to allow the ORR to proceed with criminal proceedings against the company for the Potters Bar derailment".

The accident happened when a West Anglia Great Northern express train travelling from London to Kings Lynn derailed at a faulty set of points close to Potters Bar station in Hertfordshire on May 10 2002.

Six passengers were killed as well as a pedestrian who was struck by debris, while dozens of passengers were injured.

While the maintenance company involved was Jarvis, the overall responsibility for the track rested with Railtrack whose functions were taken over by NR in October 2002.

Following an inquest into the disaster which took place earlier this year, the ORR announced in November that it was prosecuting NR and Jarvis under a section of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act.