late lessons from potters bar
WORKERS, JULY 2003 ISSUE
The Health and Safety Executive's third "interim" report on last year's rail crash at Potters Bar has put the blame squarely on the poor maintenance practices and procedures which exist in the fragmented and privately owned railway industry. Notably, it is clear from the report that there was no negligence on the part of the railway workers involved.
The fact that it has taken the HSE over a year to reach these conclusions is down to the political and legal back-covering which it clearly feels are necessary in dealing with the many players involved. These include the government, Railtrack (and its successor Network Rail), the British Transport Police, Jarvis, and WAGN (the train company - a subsidiary of National Express).
All parties have been involved in chicanery in order to deflect blame, most notably Jarvis, which soon after the accident suggested that sabotage was the cause. This was a cynical attempt to defend the value of their shares which fell sharply immediately after the crash.
The key question now is - how long will the fragmented railway take to learn the lessons of this accident and make the necessary changes? Under British Rail, changes could quickly be put into effect. Change on today's railway, governed as it is by legal contracts and bureaucracy, is painfully slow.
It is particularly noteworthy that the HSE's report blames "the system" and not one particular party. In that respect it is flawed. It is the Tories who should be blamed for privatising British Rail, and the Labour government that should be blamed for not taking steps to reverse the damaging fragmentation inflicted on the railways at privatisation. How many more lives will be sacrificed in the name of capitalism before this government acts?
· The Post Office's announcement that it is ending the use of trains for the carriage of mail has been met with condemnation from rail and postal unions, who point out that this is a move diametrically opposed to the government's stated objective of moving freight off the roads on to the railways. Up to 800 jobs could be lost, and will mean an extra 160,000 lorry journeys a year.
This announcement came days after the Post Office closed its own underground railway under central London (a line built specifically for the transport of mail) despite the fact that the replacement vans will take twice as long as the trains they have replaced.
Unbelievably, the government has claimed that the decisions of this nationalised organisation were taken without its knowledge! Now that the government is clear that the Post Office is sticking two fingers up to its supposed transport policy, will it order the decisions to be reversed?