§ Mr. Tilneyasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviaition whether he has considered the Reports of his inspectors, which have recently been published, on the railway accidents which occurred in close succession towards the end of 1955, including the report on the serious collision at Barnes on 2nd December; and how far there is any indication of a common cause.
§ Mr. WatkinsonYes. In view of the very natural concern about railway safety at the end of last year I said that I would consider the desirability of a special review of the Reports to determine whether there were any features common to all these accidents. This review has been carried out by the Inspecting Officers of Railways. It confirms what was fairly clear at the time that the outstanding common feature was failure in varying degrees of the human element, as indeed it is in the great majority of railway accidents.
I have discussed this aspect very thoroughly with the British Transport Commission and the trade unions. I am satisfied that all concerned are co-operating very closely in the matter of safety, as was clear from the public statement which was made in January by the British Transport Joint Consultative Council.
166WThere were other subsidiary causes and old fashioned equipment contributed to some of the accidents. The remedy for these and other recognised deficiencies in our railways lies in the Commission's modernisation plan.
There is no infallible solution to the problem of railway safety, and the best way of improving safety standards is to press on with the modernisation plan with all possible speed. Finally, it is important to maintain a proper perspective in these matters. No passenger was killed in a train accident in 1954, and even in 1955 only one passenger was killed for every 38 million passenger journeys.