Ex-Network Rail chair threatened firm over engineer’s Euston criticism

The new rail minister threatened in a previous role to withhold public contracts from one of the UK’s largest engineering groups until it disciplined a senior engineer for raising concerns about safety at one of London’s busiest train stations.

In his former role as chair of Network Rail, Peter Hendy threatened Systra UK, which counts Network Rail among its main clients, with losing business not only from the public body but also its supply chain.

He told Network Rail officials to “deal with” the engineer, Gareth Dennis, and said the Systra CEO should be sent a “stop and desist” letter with a request for disciplinary action against Dennis.

In an email to Systra, Lord Hendy said “the allegation that Network Rail is running an unsafe operation is a serious one” and added: “Employees here know that what they say in the media reflects on their employment, and I should like confirmation that your employees understand that too.”

Six days after Hendy’s letter to Systra on 14 May, Dennis was placed on suspension while an investigation was carried out into his comments in an Independent article published a month earlier in which he raised concerns that overcrowding at Euston station was unsafe. Hendy’s complaint was cited in the suspension letter that Dennis received on 20 May.

Further emails show that on 24 May Dennis was offered a financial settlement to leave Systra on the condition that he sign an agreement with a confidentiality clause. He did not sign it, and on 8 July he was dismissed with four weeks’ notice after a disciplinary hearing.

Dennis, who has a one-year-old child, won the 2024 Young Rail Professionals distinguished service award. He said the minister’s intervention “exposes Hendy’s hypocrisy and the industry’s failure to address safety and accessibility issues”.

“His letter to Systra and his multiple emails to Network Rail executives where he discusses getting me sacked reveal what the rail industry and [its] leadership actually thinks about safety and accessibility,” said Dennis, a rail expert who also lectures at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education.

Hendy’s emails and letter were written weeks before his apology to the Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson after she had to crawl off a train at London’s King’s Cross when staff failed to help her disembark. On Tuesday Lady Grey-Thompson said the apologies from Hendy and other transport executives were “nice … but don’t mean much”.

Hendy’s letter to Nick Salt, the Systra CEO, and his multiple emails to officials at Network Rail were released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The letter reveals that Hendy asked for evidence and demanded that Salt tell him “what action you are taking” in relation to Dennis and attempted to gain leverage over Systra, which counts Network Rail as one of its main clients, by threatening to withhold public contracts.

“Finding a potential supplier criticising a possible client reflects adversely on your likelihood of doing business with us or our supply chain,” he wrote.

Hendy, who earned a knighthood in 2013 and later that year was revealed to have given free travel in the form of four £10 Oyster cards and a London 2012 badge to a sex worker with whom he had a nine-month affair, was chair of Network Rail from 2015 until he was brought into the Labour government and made a lord last month.

As a minister at the Department for Transport, Hendy is now in charge of reforming the UK’s railways and determining their future structure – a major government priority.

His letter to Systra came after he wrote a number of internal emails to officials at Network Rail a few days before.

On 15 April, Hendy wrote: “Dennis is a prolific consultant. Please check whether we have (I know we have) and or are currently employing him as we should stop. Accusing NR of operating the station unsafely is unacceptable and we should challenge his qualifications to say so. We shouldn’t leave him without challenge on this.”

On being told that Dennis worked for Systra, Hendy replied: “If he does we should write directly to their CEO with a stop and desist letter.”

Two days later Hendy sent another email to Network Rail officials saying Salt should be sent a “request for disciplinary action [against Dennis] as this is a serious and completely unproven allegation”.

On 24 April he wrote an email asking officials: “How did we deal with him?” In a later email he added: “You don’t answer the point about whether Dennis and Systra accept the point that your staff have a responsibility both to your own reputation and that of actual and potential customers … he’s a manager in the railway industry and he and you have responsibilities as a consequence.”

In September 2023 the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), a government regulator, had issued an improvement notice to Network Rail about overcrowding at Euston, warning: “You have failed to implement, so far as reasonably practicable, effective measures to prevent risks to health and safety of passengers (and other persons at the station) during passenger surges and overcrowding events”.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “The rail regulator’s concerns raised in September 2023 about passenger congestion at Euston station were addressed and put to bed in December 2023, months before the Independent piece was published. Decisions on how employee conduct is handled is a matter for employers – in this case, Systra.”

A spokesperson for Systra Ltd said: “We are unable to comment on individual staff matters other than to confirm that a thorough investigation was carried out.”

Hendy has been approached for comment.