§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will tabulate the number of reported signal failures on the railways of(a) the British Railways Board and (b) London Underground Ltd., giving the number of reported wrong side failures of signals for each year since 1981; and what steps have been taken to reduce their numbers.
§ Mr. FreemanThe Health and Safety Executive's railway inspectorate began recording reported wrong side failures in 1990, following recommendations in Sir Anthony Hidden's report of the investigation into the Clapham junction accident.
The figures available are:
Figures 1990 BR 1,298 LUL 0 1991–92 BR 698 LUL 4 Of those, only one in 1990 and five in 1991–92 led to reportable accidents. Also, of the respective years' totals, 862W 847 and 277 incidents involved failures of position light signals which are usually located in yards and sidings not used by passenger trains, and where speeds are low.
The reduction is due largely to BR's total quality campaign whereby a systematic approach to quality is closely aligned with safety management.