Papers lay into Network Rail

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7169141.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Network Rail gets a hammering in print after overrunning engineering work caused delays for thousands of people.

"Pain of the train" says the Daily Mirror's editorial, accusing "bungling" bosses of "monumental incompetence".

The Sun agrees, nicknaming the operator "Network Fail" for forcing passengers to travel in "shabby squalor".

The Independent, on the other hand, blames the government, accusing it of "either hypocrisy or incompetence" for failing to take the railways in hand.

Over a barrel

The rise in the price of crude oil to a record $100 a barrel makes headlines.

The Times fears the rise is a "psychological benchmark" and could "choke" Britain's economy if it feeds through to petrol forecourts.

The Guardian says the markets are "in turmoil" and quotes the AA, which fears petrol could hit 103.3p per litre.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times worries more about the US which it says is "at greater danger of recession than at any stage since the collapse of the internet bubble in 2000-01".

Marsden 'miracle'

The papers carry dramatic images of a fire at the Royal Marsden Hospital, but express relief that no lives were lost.

"No-one likes to talk about miracles at the Royal Marsden, but this couldn't have been far off," writes Paul Harris in the Daily Mail.

The Sun says "Heroic surgeons defied the flames to carry on operating" before they were forced to evacuate.

But the Daily Telegraph worries that the blaze has thrown the treatment of thousands of patients into "disarray".

'Save Our Rovers'

The Times has the story of a woman whose first novel was rejected by 20 agents only to go on to win one of the UK's most prestigious literary prizes.

"Rejected author has last laugh" it says, after Catherine O'Flynn won the Costa Books Awards First Novel title.

Finally, "Save Our Rovers" pleads the Daily Star, after it emerged that Coronation Street writers are planning to axe the famous Rovers Return pub.

The paper says the news had some of the soap's stars "crying into their beer".