A new railway station clock to commemorate Labour’s state ownership of the railways has cost the taxpayer £120,000.
Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, asked in Parliament how much the clock, installed at London Bridge station in October, had cost.
Keir Mather, the Transport minister, replied: “Installation of the one-off clock at London Bridge cost Network Rail £120,000 and is the largest circular digital screen on the UK rail network – sized to provide clear visibility for 200,000 passengers passing it each day.”
He added: “The rollout of the clock to other stations has been delivered as part of a wider programme of accessibility and inclusivity upgrades to customer information systems, costing Network Rail £330,000.”
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Holden called the cost “just another example of Network Rail treating taxpayers with contempt”.
The clock features a digital time display in its centre surrounded by two red rings. Arrows rotate around those rings; when they meet at the top and bottom of the clock, they form the familiar double-arrow logo of National Rail.
At the time of its October launch, Network Rail said: “Not only does the clock reflect the history of the railway and the iconic double-arrow created by Gerry Barney, it also features numerals from Margaret Calvert’s Rail Alphabet 2, carefully adapted to make the time easy to read from across a crowded station.
“London Bridge is the perfect location to launch the physical clock as it was home to only the second electrically-controlled railway clock in the world, installed in 1852, linked to a master clock at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.”
The line between Greenwich and London Bridge is the oldest in the capital, having been built in 1836 atop an 878-arch yellow brick viaduct stretching for just over three miles. It is still in intensive daily use today.
GBR is the new state-owned railway body that will run all passenger trains, as part of Labour’s ending of private competition on the tracks.
The creation of GBR reverses a flagship policy of John Major’s Conservatives that restored railways to private operation, following half a century under Labour-created British Rail.
Network Rail was contacted for comment.