YORK-BASED Jarvis Rail pulled out of the rail maintenance business today, following a series of controversial derailments.

The decision throws uncertainty over a number of administrative jobs at the firm's HQ in Toft Green, although Jarvis pledged it would endeavour to keep any redundancies to a minimum.

Rail maintenance accounts for less than 15 per cent of Jarvis's turnover and the company now intends to concentrate on its other core activities, including track renewals.

A spokeswoman said some administrative jobs could be transferred across to Network Rail, while other employees engaged in rail maintenance work could move across to work on track renewal.

Jarvis employees turning up to work today at Toft Green declined to comment to the Evening Press.

Jarvis insisted today that it stood by its maintenance record and that its decision to pull out of rail maintenance had been taken purely on commercial grounds.

But Jarvis's group finance director, Robert Kendall, admitted that the decision had been influenced by "reputational issues" which had "overshadowed" the bulk of the group's operations.

Jarvis was responsible for maintaining the section of track south of Potters Bar station, where seven people died in May 2002 when a West Anglia Great Northern train derailed on a set of points.

Shortly after the accident, Jarvis had issued a statement saying that sabotage could not be discounted. But a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) report in May 2003 said there was no evidence of sabotage or deliberate unauthorised interference with the points.

Jarvis admitted it was at fault for last month's derailment at Kings Cross station in London. Late last month, the company was in court to answer a charge of breaching health and safety regulations relating to a coal train derailment near Rotherham, in South Yorkshire. The case was adjourned until October 20.

Railtrack's successor company, Network Rail, will now take three Jarvis maintenance contracts back in-house - Central, East Coast Mainline and the Liverpool, North Wales and Merseyside contract.

A spokesman for the Transport Salaried Staff's Association (TSSA) said an urgent meeting was being held with Jarvis today to make sure jobs were protected.

He said it was a "period of uncertainty" for York workers, but supported Network Rail taking contracts back in-house in a move he said would make the rail network less fragmented.

The spokesman said Network Rail's plans to axe 700 managers would now have to be shelved due to increased workloads.

A spokesman for the biggest rail union, the RMT, said: "We welcome this announcement and we particularly welcome the fact that these contracts have been taken in-house by Network Rail.

"Now Network Rail should bite the bullet and take all maintenance contracts in-house."

Updated: 10:43 Friday, October 10, 2003