§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) if he will secure from Railtrack an assurance that all strings of railway lines imported and used on the national rail network comply with Railtrack specifications; [143548]
(2) if bulging in railway line products supplied to Railtrack from Italy has implications for Railtrack's renewal programme. [143547]
§ Mr. HillRailtrack advise that the recent problems encountered with some rails from Italy are still undergoing evaluation. There is now an embargo on importing Italian rail until a full assessment is made of their quality assurance process. Railtrack have an additional quality approved supplier in Sweden and they will step into any breach caused by the Italian embargo.
Bulging deficiencies in rail from any source may impact on work programmes. This is one of the reasons why Railtrack maintain supply contracts with several different rail manufacturers. Railtrack experience problems from time to time with any source of rail and need to be able to maintain their supplies.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) if levels of asymmetry tolerance in relation to railway lines imported from Italy in 2000 have implications for the safety of the national rail network; [143561]
(2) if levels of asymmetry tolerance in relation to railway lines imported from Corus operations in France have implications for the safety of the national rail network. [143562]
§ Mr. HillAll measurement tolerances are uniform for the acquisition of all track products including rail and are designed to avoid safety implications.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if problems with the welding of railway lines imported from Italy in 2000 have implications for renewal of the national rail network. [143564]
§ Mr. HillThere were no problems in being able to weld Italian rail. All rail is welded for Railtrack by Corus at two UK plants. There are ample supplies of rail for welding.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will secure from Railtrack an assurance that all rail track products used on the national railway network are as individual pieces of equipment traceable as to(a) country of manufacture and (b) name of manufacturer. [143551]
301W
§ Mr. HillRailtrack advise that all rail is stamped with the manufacturers' unique identifier, the year and month of manufacture, the appropriate profile and grade of rail and the string number. Railtrack are able to identify which batch any single string came from and would always investigate the rest of any batch where a single fault has been found.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will request Railtrack to provide details as to the nature of the contractual arrangements for the import of railway lines from Italy. [143549]
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if the return of railway lines imported from Italy in 2000 was related to the need to maintain safety standards on the national rail network. [143563]
§ Mr. HillNo rail has been returned to Italy. Railtrack have simply put an embargo on importing any more until such time as they are satisfied that the Italian company's quality control can reliably meet specification.
§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what the implications are for safety arising out of comparative evaluations as to macrosegregation in the context of quality between railway lines produced by Voest Alpine of Austria, Luccini's of Italy, Corns operations in France and Corus operations in Workington. [143441]