Search: Network Rail delays
A fresh row over spending on the railways erupted when the main rail workers' union claimed that essential engineering works were being deferred at almost 200 locations.
The Rail Maritime and Transport union said whistleblowers had leaked information about plans to postpone works to replace rails, sleepers and ballast in order to save money.
The union said information it had been given named locations in the Southern, Western and London to Crewe regions which have had work deferred as part of "scaling back" by Network Rail to save money.
Network Rail said safety was its number one priority, adding that track renewal was agreed with the rail regulator.
The RMT claimed over 1,000 railway engineering jobs were under threat because of the deferral of work, adding that it expected to receive details from other regions, including Scotland and the North of England.
General secretary Bob Crow said: "Network Rail cannot seriously expect us to believe that this work is being deferred to take advantage of more efficient but unknown future methods of delivery when the jobs being cut had already been placed with contractors.
"If Network Rail had already decided that work should take place at these 200 locations in the coming year, what has changed?
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"The simple fact is that Network Rail is under massive pressure to save money, but it is shocking that it is prepared to defer essential works on this scale and cut the frequency of track inspections and signals maintenance in order to do so.
"Gordon Brown has said that he is committed to using investment in public works to help our economy ride out the recession, but unless he intervenes to reverse these cuts he will be allowing infrastructure safety standards to be undermined and subsidising redundancies instead."
An NR spokesman said: "Safety is our number one priority. Our programme of track renewal is agreed with the rail regulator. Nothing will be done to compromise safety."
