Papers' concern over railways

"I wish I'd never survived that bloody crash".

From the Daily Mail, those are the despairing words of Pam Warren, who was injured in the Paddington rail disaster and became famous as the woman in the mask.

The Mail tells how 22 major operations and four years later, she and other victims are still waiting for insurance companies to settle their claims.

Mrs Warren, who receives counselling, says the fight for full compensation has been "mental torture" and like living in "purgatory".

Her comments came on the same day that, as the Daily Mirror points out, a train came off the rails at King's Cross while travelling at only 10 miles per hour.

Railway roulette

"Yet there was also a very different railway story yesterday," says the Mirror.

It is referring to the £2bn stretch of the Channel Tunnel rail link opened by the prime minister.

"That is the sort of rail story we want to hear," the paper says, "of money well spent, improvements to the network and engineering success".

The Sun asks: "When, oh when, is someone going to get a grip of our railways?

"Travelling by train should not be a game of Russian roulette," it said.

Lively debate

In an impressive display of entente cordiale, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian share a feature on Europe.

Both provide edited transcripts of a lively debate between the euro-sceptic Telegraph editor, Charles Moore and the pro-Europe Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash - chaired by the fiercely neutral broadcaster, John Humphrys.

Despite their differences, some common ground emerges in the two papers' reports.

Both use the same photographs and both give the last word to Charles Moore.

According to the Independent, researchers in the US are alarmed at a rise in broken bones among modern adolescents.

The incidence of forearm fractures has increased by 42% since the end of the sixties.

They believe one of the reasons may be the increased consumption by children of soft-drinks instead of milk.

Hurricane threat

Weather news makes it back into the papers, with the Daily Express chronicling how those hazy, lazy days of summer have so far refused to give way to the first chills of autumn.

The Indian summer has meant a late boost for trade in many resorts, the paper says, proving it with a picture of a bikini-clad student on the beach in Bournemouth on Tuesday.

And weather news makes the front page of the Telegraph, which is dominated by a huge picture of a fluffy-white whirl over a sea of deep blue.

It is a satellite photo of Hurricane Isabel, heading for America's Atlantic coast with winds of 105 miles per hour, threatening death and destruction.

Baby ejected

The paper says 40 ships of the US Fleet have left port and headed out to sea to escape the storm, while residents along a 330-mile stretch of coast have been boarding up their windows.

The Mail is among papers to tell the story of 11 month old Joshua Graham, who was thrown out of a restaurant in Aberystwyth, together with his mum.

The owner took exception to Sarah Williams opening a jar of baby food for Joshua.

The restaurant is vegetarian, but his little Heinz meal contained carrots, parsnips - and chicken.