Workers blame privatization
After deadly crash, British train drivers demand better
safety
By
Daphne Liddle
Reprinted from the New Worker of Britain
The day after the deadly train crash in London, the train
drivers' union, ASLEF, demanded improvements in safety
standards within seven days or they would take a vote for
strike action.
ASLEF general secretary Mike Rix made the announcement at a
press conference as the full death toll in the rail catastrophe
is still not known.
As we go to press the figure is officially 70, but there are
still an unknown number of bodies in the burned-out front
carriage of the Great Western Express from Cheltenham.
This train collided with the commuter train from Paddington
to Great Bedwyn at 8:11 a.m. on the morning of Oct. 5.
A full investigation of the crash will take a long time, but
already it has emerged that the Great Western train had a green
signal light to proceed while the smaller train should have
halted at a red light to allow the express to pass before
crossing the tracks to its appropriate line.
Now train drivers are reporting a history of problems with a
particular signal at that point, signal 109, which is said to
be difficult to see.
There was a near collision at exactly the same point last
year and there have been several incidents of trains going past
that signal when it has been at red over the past three
years.
Drivers say they have complained to Railtrack about this
signal a number of times and also to the rail safety
watchdog.
They also report another signal in the same area that has
been the subject of more complaints for its lack of
visibility.
ASLEF spokesperson John Richards told the New Worker that
the union welcomed the immediate promise from deputy Prime
Minister John Prescott for a full public inquiry.
"It should be speedy and consider all the evidence and
record recommendations which will prevent such accidents
happening again," said Richards.
"We should not have to wait two-and-a-half years, as with
the Southall crash."
He also reiterated the union's long-standing demand for the
fitting of the Automatic Train Protection system to all
trains.
If the Paddington crash was caused by one of the trains
going through a red light, the ATP system would have prevented
the crash. It applies brakes automatically if a train goes
through a red light.
The inquiry after the Clapham rail crash over a decade ago
recommended this system be fitted to all British Rail
trains.
The Tory government at the time agreed, then reneged. The
system is expensive and they were in the process of preparing
the rail network for privatization.
Installing the system would have imposed a cost burden that
would have deterred potential capitalist buyers.
Recently John Prescott ordered that all trains be fitted
with a different, cheaper protection system.
The danger now is that the investigation and any
recommendations coming from it will be delayed by the fact that
the rail network is now divided up between different private
companies.
The two trains were owned by separate companies and
Railtrack, responsible for the tracks and signaling, is
separate again.
Legal and financial penalties for any found to be at fault
will be high. Each company will already have its lawyers busy
protecting its interests.
The disaster comes almost exactly two years after the
Southall crash and the inquiry into that disaster is taking
place now.
Louise Christian, the lawyer for those victims' families,
wrote in the Guardian on Oct. 6: "The inquiry has already heard
compelling evidence that purely on grounds of expense, action
which could have been taken by the rail industry and the
government to prevent such collisions has not been taken.
"They, like those suffering because of yesterday's crash,
need to know that the time for excuses, paper shuffling, delay,
unsuccessful prosecutions and official hypocrisy is over."
In the wake of the Oct. 5 crash more and more people are
waking up to the fact that privatization and all it
implies--profit seeking and fragmentation of
responsibility--have seriously undermined rail safety.
ATP must be fitted to all trains as soon as possible. Until
this happens another similar disaster could be waiting to
happen at any time.
But in the long-term the only sure way to improve rail
safety is through renationalization.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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