Jarvis plunge on rail crash fallout
SHARES in Jarvis plunged more than 14% to a six-month low as investors fretted over the fallout for the rail maintenance company after Friday lunchtime's derailment at Potters Bar, Herts, which killed seven and injured 70.
Jarvis, a key contractor in and backer of the part-privatisation of the London Underground, saw its shares dive to 426 1/2p, off 71 1/2p on the session. That extended the fall in the value of Jarvis's shares since the crash to £130m.
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The company, which took on the £250m East Coast Main Line maintenance contract only 13 months ago, said it made checks as late as last Thursday on the points at Potters Bar, inspections completed by full-time employees, it said, and not sub-contractors.
Jarvis won the five-year, £50m-a-year East Coast contract from Balfour Beatty, which lost it months after the Hatfield derailment.
The falls at Jarvis represented a refocusing by dealers who on Friday feared another nationwide rail engineering crisis which, as with Hatfield, could leave delays across the network for months.
Shares in National Express, the operator of the 12.45 WAGN train from King's Cross, as well as rival operators FirstGroup and Go-Ahead were down between 5% and 6.5% by Friday's close but today were little changed.
John Armitt, chief executive of Railtrack in administration, said: 'We will not, at this juncture, be imposing speed restrictions across the network because of this accident.'
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