Premium
Rail safety and rail privatization
Author(s) -
Evans Andrew
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
significance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1740-9713
pISSN - 1740-9705
DOI - 10.1111/j.1740-9713.2007.00213.x
Subject(s) - train , track (disk drive) , business , forensic engineering , state (computer science) , telecommunications , transport engineering , engineering , operations management , history , computer science , archaeology , mechanical engineering , algorithm
Privatisation of the state‐owned British railway system was completed in 1997. The following 6 years saw four serious fatal train accidents, leading to 49 deaths. These were the train collisions at Southall in 1997 and Ladbroke Grove in 1999, each caused by trains passing red signals, and the derailments at Hatfield in 2000 and Potters Bar in 2002, each caused by defective track. Has safety been compromised by the sell‐off of the railways? Andrew Evans looks at the evidence and asks has privatisation led to more accidents?