HC Deb 13 December 1999 vol 341 c63W
Mr. Peter Bottomley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when the rail layout at Ladbroke Grove was designed, approved and installed. [101596]

Mr. Hill

The track layout at Ladbroke Grove is part of a larger scheme extending from Paddington station to past the Heathrow Airport turnoff at Airport Junction. The layout was designed and installed during the late 1980s and early 1990s by British Railways. The works were staged over a number of years and railway privatisation occurred during that time. The works included Airport Junction and electrification on the overhead line system for Heathrow Express. Statutory approval by Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) matched the stage at which the works had reached. Some of the works were approved but approval of the signalling was not completed before the accident at Southall occurred. After the Southall accident the remaining signalling approval was held in abeyance by HMRI pending the findings of the public inquiry.