RESPONSE TO BBC’S ‘DERAILED’ PROGRAMME

Wednesday 21 Sep 2005

RESPONSE TO BBC’S ‘DERAILED’ PROGRAMME

Region & Route:: National

Following the broadcast of the drama-documentary ‘Derailed’ by the BBC last night, Network Rail notes that since the Ladbroke Grove train crash in October 1999 there have been significant improvements in train protection and rail safety:

The £500million fitment of the Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) has been completed and has reduced SPAD risk by 81% since March 2001
97% of the recommendations that came out of the various public inquiries that followed the Ladbroke Grove train crash (Cullen part I & II and Cullen/Uff on train protection) have been completed
Signals Passed at Danger (SPADs) are now at their lowest ever levels and are half of what they were in 1999
All the major rail safety indicators are at historically low levels – broken rails, significant train accidents, SPADs and passenger fatalities

A Network Rail spokesman said: “Ladbroke Grove was a terrible tragedy that will never be forgotten. With the nation-wide introduction of an automatic train braking system (TPWS) that cannot be overridden if a train should pass a red light, the railways are now safer than in 1999. Rail travel is safer than it has ever been and is by far the safest form of land transport.”

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - National
020 3356 8700
mediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Media centre