A few months ago, bored on a train journey, I read an interview in the Nottingham Graduate with some eminent chap who has been involved in most rail accident investigations.
His thesis - challenging and counter-intuitive - is that it is a mistake to focus too heavily on rail safety. In the initial days after a rail crash, the increased number of deaths in car crashes on motorways and trunk roads far exceeds those in the actual rail crash.
Every time a railcrash such as Ladbroke Grove or Hatfield occurs, there is clamour from the public, politicians and the Press for much more money to be spent on rail safety.
Yet, the making railways safe makes railways slow, and far less attractive to busy travellers, who take to the motorways and trunk roads. Based on string theory, the cost of saving the handful of lives lost each year on the railways would be a far greater number of lives lost on the roads.
