The company responsible for maintaining the rail track at Potters Bar has nearly doubled its pre-tax profits in the last year.

Jarvis maintenance contractors announced on Tuesday that annual profits have increased 31 per cent with pre-tax profits rising from £45.8million from £24.8million in the last 12 months. Its share price, which fell sharply after the crash, rose 10p on the news.

"It is unbelievable," said Stephen Acres, a senior partner of Stanley de Leon solicitors in Darkes Lane, Potters Bar, who represented victims of the Hatfield rail crash which happened on the same line in 2000. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on the future of the railway network and infrastructure and not to maximising profits.

"Four weeks down the line it appears the accident is accepted as one of those things that has happened.

"Greater emphasis needs to be placed on the future of the railway network and infrastructure.

"The travelling public need confidence in the network."

"The question is when will the money be spent to ensure this accident does not happen again?"

In a statement Railtrack chief executive Paris Moayedi said: "Public safety and the safety of our employees are our highest priorities, and the impact of this tragic event is felt throughout the company."

He would not comment on the derailment before the Health and Safety Executive completes its investigation.

Grieving relatives are demanding a public inquiry into the cause of the crash.

One month after the derailment which killed seven people, the families of Austen Kark, who died, and his wife Nina Bawden, who is still recovering in hospital, have asked the new transport secretary Alistair Darling to investigate the disaster.

They claim to have lost faith in the Health and Safety Executive, which has still not published a report into the Hatfield crash in October 2000.

Conservative transport spokesman Theresa May called for a public inquiry last month but former secretary Stephen Byers decided to wait for the HSE report before doing so.

Railtrack is also investigating allegations of unsafe working conditions after an undercover journalist got a job on the railways. It is introducing a new computerised system for booking and control of track workers.

June 14, 2002 11:00