The reputation of rail maintenance firm Jarvis has taken another battering, after the company admitted their engineers were responsible for a derailment at Kings Cross.

Rail services from the station suffered yesterday after a GNER train came off tracks as it left a platform at Kings Cross, en route to Glasgow.

Although no-one was injured, Network Rail said the train and track were both damaged in the incident, and that a full investigation would be carried out by Transport Police and the Health and Safety Executive.

Jarvis yesterday admitted the derailment happened after its engineers failed to reset points on the tracks after overnight maintenance.

“It would appear that, after undertaking lengthy overnight rail maintenance work, the Jarvis maintenance team omitted to make the final disconnection on one of the points in question," a statement from Jarvis said, adding that checks were continuing.

The firm is at the centre of a police investigation into the Potters Bar crash in May last year, and has defended allegation that poor maintenance led to the derailment in which seven people died.

Politicians and rail industry figures condemned Jarvis, with Transport Minister Alistair Darling saying the Government was not prepared to tolerate such mistakes.

The chief executive of Network Rail, John Arnitt, was said to be furious the derailment at Kings Cross overshadowed the opening of the new high-speed Channel Tunnel rail link.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said the incident was latest in a “long line of question marks” over Jarvis, and raised doubts about the firm’s ability to maintain parts of the rail network.