Waverley work to continue despite Carillion collapse

Carillion won a Â£23m contract to extend platforms 5, 6 and 12 to prepare Waverley for the arrival of new longer trains.

Thousands of jobs across the UK are at risk after the company went into liquidation yesterday amid questions over why it continued to be awarded public contracts despite profit warnings being issued.

Carillion started work early last year on a £23 million contract to extend platforms at Waverley. It is one of several big projects Carillion has in Scotland, including the Aberdeen bypass.

But Carillion employees are continuing to be paid and Network Rail said they did not expect the station work - due for completion towards the end of this year - to be affected in the short-term and were looking at what arrangements needed to be made in the longer term.

A spokesman said: “We are activating our contingency plans as a result of this unfortunate news.

“We will be working closely with the administrators and Carillion’s management team to ensure projects that they are working on continue and that the supply chain is maintained for this important work.

“Our aim is to ensure that this news has as little impact as possible on our projects to grow and expand the railway network.”

Carillion is also involved in platform works at Broughty Ferry and Aberdeen and the Shotts line electrification project.

A source said the Waverley project could be handed to another contractor or Network Rail could run it itself.

Meanwhile the Unite union announced it was considering legal action against the Carillion. Unite’s Scottish Secretary Pat Rafferty says: “It’s clear that Carillion was legally obliged to give notice to the workforce in December of the possibility of redundancies. It hasn’t done that. So Unite is taking advice about legal action to secure the pay and pension rights of our members. Obviously saving jobs is the priority but we also have to make sure that workers don’t pay the price for what is boardroom recklessness.”