[ionitiesk]

British railways being dangerous is a myth

A chronology of some of the worst rail accidents in the UK:

10 May 2002: At least seven people have died and over 70 are injured after the WAGN 1245 service from London to Kings Lynn crashed at Potters Bar in Hertfordshire. Three of the four carriages derailed and one ploughed along the platform and smashed into a bridge. The accident is just a few miles from Hatfield, scene of a fatal crash in 2000.

28 February 2001: A GNER train from York to London King's Cross crashed at Great Heck between Goole and Selby, north Yorkshire, on the East Coast main line. A Land Rover slid down an embankment from the M62 into the path of an express train. The express was derailed by the impact and then collided with a freight train travelling in the opposite direction.

17 October 2000: Four people were killed and a further 35 were hurt when a GNER London to Leeds train, travelling at over 100mph, derailed at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. A broken rail was found to be the "substantial" cause of the accident.

5 October 1999:Thirty-one people were killed when two trains collided at Ladbroke Grove, just outside Paddington station, in London.

23 June 1999: Thirty-one people were injured after a London to Glasgow Virgin Rail train collided with a stationary local train near Winsford, Cheshire.

19 September 1997: A speeding express from Swansea to Paddington crashed into an empty freight train at Southall, killing seven people. The public Health and Safety inquiry into the crash opened in September 1999.

8 August 1996: One person killed and 69 people were injured when a train collided with a stationary passenger train at Watford South Junction in Hertfordshire.

31 January 1995: A guard was killed and 30 other people injured in an accident at Aisgill on the Settle to Carlisle line.

October 1994: Five killed and 12 injured in a head-on crash after driver ran a red signal near Cowden in Kent.

December 1991: Just over 100 people were injured when two trains bound for Cardiff collided deep inside the railway tunnel beneath the River Severn.

1990: A train driver was killed and 35 injured at Stafford station in a two-train crash in August.
Some months later, two passengers died and more than 240 were injured after a train ran into buffers at London's Cannon Street Station.
After that, four people died and 22 were injured in a head-on crash at Newton station near Glasgow.

March 1989: Five people died and more than 90 were injured when two trains collided outside Purley station in south London.
Two days later, two suburban electric trains in Glasgow collided head-on on a single track and two people died.
And on 30 November, 15 people were injured when two interCity expresses collided outside Newcastle upon Tyne Central Station.

12 December 1988: In the worst train accident of recent years, 35 people died in the Clapham Junction crash in a rush-hour collision.
The Hidden inquiry into the crash recommended the installation of automatic train protection (ATP) for the whole rail network. But the £750m price tag was considered too high by British Rail and the government, immediately prior to privatisation in 1993, and implementation of the safety system was ruled out.

November 1988: A train driver was killed and 18 passengers hurt when a commuter train ploughed into a bridge after leaving the tracks at St. Helens, Merseyside

October 1987: Four people died when a train fell into the swollen River Towy after the rail bridge collapsed. And in the same month 14 were injured when two trains collided at Forest Gate, on the Liverpool Street, London, line.

1986: A number of rail accidents resulted in 11 deaths and 123 people injured. The worst of these was on July 26, when nine people were killed and 11 injured when a passenger train hit a van on a level crossing at Lockington, Yorkshire. In September that year 60 were hurt and one killed in a collision between two express trains at Colwich, Staffordshire.

July 1984: 13 killed and 44 hurt in a derailment.

October 1979: Five killed and 52 hurt when two trains collide at Invergowrie after a warning signal is ignored by one of the drivers.

February 1975: 43 people died and 74 were hurt when a train hit the end of a cul-de-sac tunnel at Moorgate Underground station in central London.

June 1975: Two trains including the Euston to Glasgow sleeper service collided at Nuneaton station, Warwickshire, killing six people and injuring 67.

December 1973: A train derailed in Ealing, west London, killing 10 people and injuring 94.

May 1969: Six people died and 121 were injured when a London-Aberdeen express derailed at Morpeth in Northumberland.

November 1967: A derailment at Hither Green in south London killed 49 people and injured 78.

December 1957: A train ran through a red signal in the fog and collided with another train at Lewisham, south London, killing 90 people and injuring 173.

October 12, 1952: 112 people killed and 340 hurt when two express trains collided at Harrow and Wealdstone, in north west London, and a third train ran into the wreckage.

The UK's worst train crash was on May 22, 1915, when a wooden troop train and a passenger train collided at Quintinshill near Gretna Green, killing more than 200 people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/465475.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/..._the_railways/