Senior Network Rail executive resigns after the Great Paddington Dewiring
Portrait of Michelle Handforth, former regional director for Wales and West at Network Rail Network Rail
There has been a significant casualty from the chaos of downed power supply lines on the Great Western Main Line earlier in December. Michelle Handforth, who was until Friday the Managing Director, Wales & Western for Network Rail, has resigned from her post, citing ‘the challenges of the role’. She leaves as the region is facing an official enquiry from the Office of Rail and Road into persistently poor performance across the region.
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Still, overhead, power, by wires, is a technicality, that was an optimal innovation, 100 years ago –
when steam was outed.
Now, a redundant power system has to be ensured.
(On Time and low risk is high quality and handsomely paid for, by willingly paying clients.)
For proving an equal mode, urgently, decisively now, as well known as unknown, risks have to be outed and in particular from infrastructure of railways!
“Height” has to be taken, for shifts, now the New Normal.
Quite surprising that a few underlings were not axed as sacrificial goats but instead the person overall in charge, and with a lavish salary to boot, fell on her sword.
It’s a pity we don’t see the same sort of thing elsewhere and in government.
Now let’s wait for the report as to how one train ripped down the entire OLE at the station throat and why passengers were simply left there fir up to three hours. GWR and Network Rail have some tough questions to answer.
Accepting responsibility for failure is very rare these days. She was responsible for the team that reported to her, and accepted that the buck stopped with her. Hopefully other heads will roll as detailed accountability is established. Thus should happen in other industries that are performing badly. The NHS springs to mind, where nobody is ever held accountable, no matter how many tragedies occur
As, regrettably, funding for railway infrastructure still is for standards, that already at previous century no longer were sustainable, yes indeed there are several high, higher up ranked…, that now should be held responsible, for a railway now plaguing clients, owners and society.
Frustrations, strikes and BREXIT, are viable symptoms, telling that devastatingly, railways, just by claiming “green”…, now is allowed never to pay back, for funding plowed in, all over Hemisphere.
This isn’t new. Around 10 years ago I boarded a Heathrow Express at Paddington. No information on delays was given. We came to a halt some miles out – I can’t now remember where exactly. It turned out that the wires were known to be down, but HE continued to dispatch trains from Paddington to queue up behind the outage. I and over a thousand others missed our flights. If we had been told what was happening, travelling via the Piccadilly line would have got us to Heathrow. Never used HE since.