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ISSUE 1624 Friday 5 November 1999

New rail signalling system 'too risky' to install By Paul Marston Transport Correspondent

Interim results six months to 30 September 1999 [4 Nov '99] - Railtrack Railtrack Second interim report on the Ladbroke Grove rail accident [29 Oct '99] - Health & Safety Executive Press releases - Health & Safety Executive Safety & Standards Directorate Press releases - Office of the Rail Regulator Paddington railcrash - Department of the Environment, Transport & the Regions SPAD signals - Railinfo Institution of Railway Signal Engineers'

City: Railtrack warns on fees as passenger levels soar

A NEW signalling system for Britain's busiest high-speed rail line has been shelved on safety grounds after the Paddington disaster, Railtrack said yesterday.

Unveiling record half-year profits of #236 million, the firm stressed its commitment to safety, and announced that new safeguards to prevent trains running through red lights could be in place within three years. Senior managers said the number of signals passed at danger (SPADs) had continued to rise in the four weeks since the Paddington accident.

Autumn is traditionally a bad season for SPAD incidents but rail executives have been dismayed to discover that the number in the month since Paddington is higher than that for the same period last year. Some train companies attribute the rise to drivers being "more tense" since the disaster but others say it is because there are more new drivers on the network.

The #2 billion modernisation of the London-Glasgow West Coast main line has been planned on the basis of computerised "moving block" signalling, which removes the need for traditional lineside signals. In theory, it allows trains to run closer together, thus increasing track capacity. After the abandonment of moving block technology on London Underground's Jubilee Line, Railtrack had already begun a review of the West Coast project. But the Paddington crash has convinced managers that they should seek a fixed block alternative.

Gerald Corbett, chief executive, said: "There are 2,000 trains a day on the West Coast main line. On the introduction of moving block, we would flick a switch and they would all go over to computerised control with lineside signals taken away. I think that's a huge risk." Railtrack said it intended to spend "tens of millions" on accelerating its Train Protection Warning System, which forces trains to stop at red signals provided they are not travelling at more than 70mph. The company now believes it can implement the #150 million system across the network by the end of 2002, a year earlier than it had indicated previously.

Investigators into the Paddington crash have established that the Thames driver who triggered the accident by going through a red light also failed to take notice of a back-up signal that should have alerted him to danger.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), November 05, 1999