Too much pressure to do to much work in too little possession.
This was a huge signalling changeover, which unfortunately was badly planned from the outset, and designed as one big commissioning, rather than being split into stages.
By the time it was realised that there was a problem, it was too late to redesign it to carve up into separate stages and still meet the programmed dates.
I understand that in the run up to the blockade, NR commissioned internal and 3rd party reviews into the feasibility of the commissioning strategy, every one of which came out with a recommendation to reprogramme with a longer possession, and/or redesign and split the work.
The politics of delaying the work (for at least a year) meant that all these recommendations were overruled at progressively higher and higher levels in NR.
This is the result.
As a complete layman re signal technology I think the report is brilliant in explaining the accident very clearly to the man in the street.
I have read it through twice, & none of the serious claims made by Signal Head are in the report.
The report specifically dismisses fatigue or pressure as a cause.
Nor is there a word about the issue introduced by Signal Head with the phrase. "I understand....".
His " I understand" allegation is so serious that it would have featured heavily in the report if true.
The joy of the forum is that informed & knowledgeable people bring their experience to the rest of us. There are many very well informed posters on this thread & elsewhere on the Forum.
Signal Head's post is very different. It mislead me, until I checked it against the facts in the report & realised that RAIB do not confirm what he tells us.
To be any use posts should be based on fact, not beliefs or wishes.