WORRYING for the workers, good news for the passengers. The announcement that Jarvis is abandoning its rail maintenance role comes as a shock, but should ultimately prove to be a blessing.

Right now, the staff are in turmoil. This decision affects hundreds of workers, many of them based at its York headquarters.

Bosses say that the switch of rail maintenance contracts to Network Rail will be a smooth transition. But these words cannot answer the many questions the deal raises. Will it mean restructuring, often a euphemism for redundancies? Will pay and conditions change under new management? Will York remain the maintenance HQ?

Both Network Rail and Jarvis must offer a full and frank briefing to the staff at the earliest opportunity.

Handled well, the move to Network Rail could be positive for the affected employees. They might be happy to leave a company which today effectively blamed its rail maintenance workers for ditching the contracts. Jarvis said it was worried about the damage to its reputation from accidents allegedly caused by poor workmanship.

That confession is revealing. First it suggests that Jarvis is more concerned about the impact of recent crashes on its "reputation"- its share price, in other words - than the devastation they caused to passengers. Secondly, its bosses want to pass the buck for these incidents to the workforce, rather than accept that the buck stops with them.

For rail passengers, this is undoubtedly a good day. A series of post-privatisation accidents confirmed the madness of pitting rail safety against profit.

Network Rail's take-over of Railtrack a year ago divorced responsibility for safety from the private sector. Today's decision will place further distance between the two. That should make our accident-blighted railways a safer place to be.

Updated: 10:23 Friday, October 10, 2003