Network Rail points finger at Atos Origin for outage

BlackBerry service and automated departure boards put out of action by tech problems

Network Rail has blamed "issues" caused by IT services provider Atos Origin that meant it was unable to automatically update train departure boards or access emails via BlackBerry devices.

When asked whether the problems that arose last Wednesday were due to Atos Origin's service, a Network Rail spokesperson said: "Yes. We're investigating it and getting to the bottom of what happened, but we're not at a stage where we can confidently explain it."

Atos Origin operates Network Rail's train management and planning systems that are used to compile rail timetables and monitor the location of trains across the network.

Although the precise cause of the issues remains unknown, no trains were cancelled as a result, but departure board had to be updated manually.

The problems began Wednesday lunchtime and were resolved on Thursday morning.

Network Rail said that things are "pretty much back to normal now" but admitted that there are still one or two small glitches that need to be ironed out.

When contacted, Atos Origin declined to answer specific questions about the problems experienced by Network Rail.

"An isolated incident on Wednesday 6 April impacted delivery of some of our services. Services have now been restored," the company said in a statement.