REGIONAL Railtrack director Nicholas Pollard has unreservedly apologised to victims of the Hatfield rail disaster - and pledged no expense would be spared in ensuring such a thing could not happen again.

In an exclusive interview with the Evening Press he also apologised to passengers for the chaos crippling the nation's rail system; but said safety must now be the top priority.

Passengers in the North East could expect delays and frustrations on main line services for another two weeks at least, he said, as up to 200 sections of line were checked.

But the worst of the problems should be over when the section of line at Hatfield was reopened, expected to be on November 13.

In a sometimes emotional interview, Mr Pollard said he and everyone at Railtrack had been devastated by what had happened at Hatfield.

"I feel so helpless because we can only offer our deepest sympathies, our most heart-felt condolences, to the families - to the people whose fathers or husbands were so tragically killed," he said.

"Apart from that, all we can do is attempt to ensure that all the lessons are learned, and learned as quickly as possible."

Mr Pollard said the inquiry into the tragedy would reveal what the cause was.

But he confirmed that a form of track deterioration known as gauge corner cracking was thought to be partially responsible - although it was a combination of factors that had led to the "unmitigated disaster".

He added that while Railtrack had been aware that the section of line at Hatfield needed work - work which had been planned for November - the company had not been told how bad the condition of the line was.

"We knew there was some gauge corner cracking," he said. "We did not know it had got to the stage it had got to. If we had known that the line was in anything like that condition there would have been an emergency possession taken and the work would have been done."

While Railtrack has overall responsibility for maintenance of track, the inspection and maintenance work itself is contracted out to other companies.

Questioned whether Railtrack would in future have to consider taking responsibility for inspections out of the hands of those contractors so that Railtrack engineers did the work themselves, Mr Pollard said he was unable to comment.

But he admitted: "There was clearly a failing. It will not be allowed to happen again."

Mr Pollard insisted financial considerations had not played a part in the deterioration of the track at Hatfield. Investment in new track had increased in recent years, he said, with £50million scheduled to be spent on renewing track in the 2000/ 2001 year.

Most of the main line track was less than 15 years old and, at Hatfield, the track had been only five years old.

But he stressed that no expense would be spared in future in ensuring all track was safe. "We will spend whatever it takes," he said.

Responding to suggestions Railtrack bosses had "panicked" in ordering wholesale speed restrictions in the wake of Hatfield and thereby throwing the rail network into chaos, he admitted it "probably was a very cautious approach".

There was an "enormous amount of work" to be done, he agreed. But he insisted: "It will not be hurried at the expense of safety."

Railtrack staff were now working "round the clock" to inspect 200 sections of line in the London and North East zone that needed checking, he said.

Of the 85 sections so far checked, speed restrictions had been introduced on 57. By the beginning of this week, four of those sections had been cleared and the work was continuing.

He agreed it would take weeks to complete the work. But he stressed that once the section of line at Hatfield was reopened, most of the delays and problems on the East Coast Main Line at least would end.

"We're over the hump of the worst cases once we've dealt with Hatfield," he said. "We can only apologise to passengers for the delays they are experiencing."