Thames Trains has pleaded guilty to breaches of health and safety law over the fatal Paddington rail crash. It entered the plea at London's Bow Street Magistrates' Court.
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is prosecuting Thames Trains under the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act, revealed a report.
Thirty-one people, including both train drivers, died and 500 were injured when a train went through a red light at Ladbroke Grove, west London, on 5 October 1999, which led to a crash with a First Great Western Train.
The prosecution has been brought under two sections of the Health and Safety Act, said the report. The first relates to the health and safety of employees and the second relates to the health and safety of passengers.
The court has the power to issue an unlimited fine.
The HSE had announced in March that it intended to prosecute both Thames Trains and Railtrack, now Network Rail.
In a similar case, First Great Western was fined £1.5m for the 1997 railcrash in Southall, west London, after the HSE brought a prosecution under the same Health and Safety Act. Seven people died in the Southall crash, said the report.
