A GRIEVING son has spoken of his disgust after Network Rail's former boss was given a knighthood at Buckingham Palace on the same day the firm accepted responsibility for a crash that killed his mother.

George Masson said the honour should be stripped from Sir John Armitt, who was chief executive of Network Rail (NR) at the time of the Grayrigg disaster in Cumbria, which killed Margaret Masson and left 86 people injured – 28 seriously.

Sir John was knighted at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday. At the same time Mr Masson had travelled from Scotland for a five-minute hearing at Lancaster Magistrates Court, when Network Rail lawyers – for the first time in court – admitted responsibility for the tragedy five years ago.

Mr Masson, 62, an engineer, from Castlemilk in Glasgow, said: "This stinks. He doesn't deserve it. The safety was non-existent. They were putting cash before lives. He was the top man and must have known what was going on with the corners they were cutting. I was an engineer for 30 years. I wouldn't do a job without the right tools.

"He shouldn't be getting a knighthood. It should be taken off him."

Sir John, who left NR six months after the Grayrigg crash to be appointed as chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, a post he still holds, received his honour for services to engineering.

But engineering safety maintenance was described as a "shambles" on the West Coast Main Line in Cumbria at the time of the Grayrigg crash.

Rail Maritime and Transport union leader Bob Crow said: "It cannot be right that those who presided over a culture of cuts to staffing and essential works at Network Rail are rewarded with a knighthood on the same day that the company has been forced to plead guilty to major health and safety failures."

The inquest into Mrs Masson's death was told last year of maintenance engineers complaining of being overworked, under-staffed and bullied by management.

At Grayrigg, stretcher bars holding the moveable rails a set distance apart when the points are operated were poorly maintained and failed, causing the train to derail.

Mrs Masson, 84, from Glasgow, died from multiple injuries when the Virgin Pendolino London-to-Glasgow express train crashed on February 23, 2007. The 300-tonne locomotive derailed at 95mph after hitting a faulty set of points, with all nine carriages coming off the tracks.

Lawyers for NR told Lancaster magistrates the company would plead guilty to breaking health and safety laws before the crash.

The court heard the firm's systems for inspection and maintenance were inadequate and what systems there were had not been properly followed.

NR is facing an unlimited fine when it is sentenced for the Grayrigg crash at Preston Crown Court on April 2.

Sir John said: "I have never hidden from the fact that the accident at Grayrigg happened on my watch.

"I entirely understand the distress and anger of the Masson family, but I can assure them that safety was the number one priority for me during my time at Network Rail."

Last year, NR was fined £3million at St Albans Crown Court after admitting safety breaches involving a set of points which led to a derailment at Potters Bar in Hertfordshire in May 2002. Seven people were killed. NR had assumed responsibility for the crash from its predecessor, Railtrack. Sir John was chief executive of Railtrack plc at the time.