THE railway in Britain is officially described as ‘the safest in Europe’, and as the network is also one of the most congested in the world that is no mean feat.
In the London area alone, hundreds of trains routinely bring over half a million people into the centre each morning – and that figure does not include another 400,000 or so who use Transport for London rail services for their daily journeys.
The job of the railway inspectors was to provide a careful analysis, without assumption or prejudice, but although their conclusions sometimes improved nineteenth century working conditions more effectively than the trade unions, the emphasis of HMRI at the time was on serious accidents rather than the routine safety of staff