Sir - The Institute of Logistics & Transport’s report Railway Health & Safety Regulatory Strategy (RG 10.01 p664) appears to be a most apt and timely warning against the bureaucratic safety overkill that has been inflicted on Britain’s railways over the last decade or so. Indeed, Part 2 of Lord Cullen’s report on the Ladbroke Grove accident appears to be recommending more of this, not less.
If anything it is surely time for the country that gave the world railways to sweep away all this ramshackle bureaucracy and start again with a clean sheet - in line, of course, with the EU’s emerging safety and interoperability directives.
However, to put things into proper context it needs to be understood, first, that risk is inherent in any activity, be it transport or elsewhere. Second, the proper emphasis should be placed not on safety per se but on effective management. After all, many years’ experience should teach us that an effectively- managed railway will by definition be a safe railway. On the other hand, as more recent experience has demonstrated only too vividly, a safe railway is not necessarily a sign of effective management.
Tim HallLondon, Great Britain
