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Britain’s rail minister has apologised for suggesting the state-owned operator of the rail network could withhold contracts from a company over media comments by one of its employees about the safety of London Euston station.
In his first public comments on the dispute, Lord Peter Hendy on Wednesday told an industry conference that he regretted his tone in a letter to a supplier in May that criticised Gareth Dennis, a railway engineer.
“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,” Hendy said.
Hendy, who was appointed rail minister in July, had written to consultancy Systra as chair of Network Rail, which owns and operates the UK’s railway infrastructure.
In the letter, Hendy criticised comments by Dennis, a Systra employee, describing Euston station in central London as “unsafe” because of passenger overcrowding.
“Finding a potential supplier criticising a possible client reflects adversely on your likelihood of doing business with us or our supply chain,” Hendy told Nick Salt, Systra’s chief executive. Dennis was dismissed by Systra following Hendy’s intervention.
Railway supply chain companies have since privately expressed concerns over the implications for procurement at Network Rail, which builds and maintains rail infrastructure. The public body has a budget of £43.1bn for the five years between 2024 and 2029.
“What I would say is that no contractor has or will be penalised for employees raising concerns about safety,” Hendy told the Railway Industry Association conference, adding that “safety is an absolute priority” at Euston.
The station, the southern terminus of the West Coast mainline and one of the busiest stations in the capital, has become a lightning rod for criticism amid significant overcrowding.
Network Rail received an improvement notice over crowd management at Euston from the industry regulator in October 2023, which was lifted two months later. Dennis’s comments were published by the Independent newspaper in April 2024.
Last month London TravelWatch, the capital’s transport watchdog, warned that “high levels of overcrowding” were “putting passengers in danger”, and ministers ordered an overhaul of the “outdated” station.
Changes included turning off a giant advertising screen that was previously used as a departure board. Last week, Network Rail said it would allow some passengers to board trains 20 minutes before departure.
Plans to redevelop Euston, which would create a larger concourse, have been on hold subject to additional government funding and decisions over the future of the HS2 high-speed rail network that is designed to run to the station.