Health and safety inspectors repeatedly failed to raise concerns about the signal blamed for the devastating 1999 Paddington rail disaster, a court has heard.
The crash, which left 31 dead and more than 400 injured, happened when a London-bound First Great Western express train crashed into a Thames Trains local service to Bedwyn, Wiltshire.
The Thames train had gone through a red light at a signal - named SN109 - in Ladbroke Grove shortly after leaving Paddington station.
The signal was only fully visible from 164m rather than the required 188m, giving train drivers travelling at the maximum line speed 6.2 seconds to see it instead of the recommended 7 seconds.
Network Rail accepted that SN109 did not comply with signal visibility requirements but insisted it had frequently been checked by health and safety inspectors in the years before the crash, Blackfriars Crown Court heard.
Nigel Sweeney QC, for Network Rail, said: "It is also significant that the signal had been considered by the Health and Safety Executive as part of a number of considerations of signalling in the Paddington area over the years, between 1994 and 1999.
"In none of those considerations was any query raised about sighting distance."
A "catalogue of failures to act" by Railtrack, then responsible for maintaining Britain's railways, led to the crash on October 5 1999, the court heard on Monday.
Network Rail, which has since replaced Railtrack, is facing an unlimited fine after earlier admitting health and safety blunders before the crash.
