Major blow for Britain's rail industry

Analysts say the crash at Great Heck is bound to dent passenger confidence

LONDON, England (CNN) -- As experts attempt to determine the cause of Wednesday's train crash, rail analysts are in no doubt about the effect it will have.

The disaster -- the fourth fatal accident on Britain railways in under four years -- is being seen as another blow for an industry still struggling to recover from the impact of the Hatfield crash, last October.

Officials from Britain's Health and Safety Executive are on their way to the scene of the latest crash, on the east coast main line near Selby in North Yorkshire.

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The tragedy appears to have been caused by a Land Rover, pulling a trailer, which slid off a motorway embankment and onto the rail track.

Analysts say that would make it a freak road accident rather than a track safety issue, like Hatfield, but they insist it is bound to have an impact on the rail industry.

"In the short-term there will be major disruption to the line which is still suffering from the aftermath of the Hatfield crash," Chris Jackson, deputy editor of Railway Gazette International told CNN.

"In the longer term, it depends how the crash is perceived -- as a road accident or a railway accident. Road accidents kill ten people a day in Britain but no-one thinks twice about jumping in their cars.

"With rail accidents there is much greater public concern even though statistically it is a safer way to travel."

Another rail expert called for immediate checks on the strength of motorway barriers.

"If a vehicle as comparatively small as a Land Rover managed to plunge through a barrier, it does suggest that barriers are not strong enough," said Nigel Harris, editor of Rail magazine.

Harris called the latest incident as "a terrible, terrible blow for the railways at a time when the industry is trying to bounce back from the Hatfield crash.

"One's heart goes out to GNER which was involved in the Hatfield derailment through no fault of its own and now the company is at the centre of another dreadful disaster."

GNER said the accident happened near to the point where the M62 motorway crosses over the railway line.

It said the company is continuing to operate services between London and Leeds. A train shuttle service is running between York and Newcastle.

The company's chief executive, Christopher Garnett, told Britain's Sky News: "It's been a ghastly six months for us what with Hatfield and this -- neither caused by us but tragically in which passengers were killed. It's terrible.

"Railways are supposed to be totally secure, not designed to have cars on the track."

Railtrack, the company responsible for railway lines in the UK, said it is not yet clear how long it will take to repair the track.

"The damage to the train is horrendous but we will not know how badly the track is damaged until after the recovery operation has been completed," a spokesman said.

The accident is the fourth fatal rail crash in Britain in three-and-a-half years.

Seven people died and 139 were injured when a Great Western train from Swansea hit a freight train at Southall, in London, in September 1997.

Britain's worst rail crash for a decade happened in October 1999, when two trains collided near London's Paddington station, killing 31 people and injuring hundreds more.

In last year's Hatfield crash four people were killed and 35 injured when a GNER express from London to Leeds derailed at high speed on a section of track which Railtrack admitted was "not good".

Railtrack instituted a huge programme of emergency maintenance on hundreds of miles of track and imposed speed restrictions at potential danger spots. Many are still in place.

The repair programme was due to be completed by Easter but Jackson says that may be jeopardised by Wednesday's accident.

"There are limited resources. The people who have been involved in the emergency repair programme, as well as a number of other major engineering projects, are the same ones who will now have to clear the track near Selby," he said.

"It is the disruption in the aftermath of the Hatfield crash that have had more of an effect on public confidence in rail travel than the perception of danger following the crash itself."

Figures show rail travel in the UK was enjoying a boom before the Hatfield crash with passenger numbers increasing by about seven percent a year.

Thousands of passengers abandoned trains, however, because of the cancellations and long delays caused by the post-Hatfield restrictions. Widespread autumn floods -- the worst in Britain in 50 years -- made the problems worse.

Even before Wednesday's tragedy, train operators were admitting that it would take years to rebuild passenger confidence.

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Railtrack
Great North Eastern Railway
Railway Gazette International

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