Jarvis will be covered by its insurance policy even if the York-based company is to blame for the Potters Bar rail crash.

The company has assured its staff it can draw on up to £155 million should it be found that it is at fault.

In a letter to employees obtained by the Evening Press, chairman Colin Skellett reveals that Jarvis is covered for negligence.

If accident investigators decide that poor maintenance is to blame, Jarvis could face as many as 80 compensation claims from survivors and relatives of the bereaved.

Seven people died and 76 were injured when a set of points moved as a West Anglia Great Northern passenger train passed over them. One carriage was derailed and came off the track, lodging underneath a canopy on the station platform at Potters Bar.

Updated: 11:42 Thursday, May 23, 2002