'Rail rage' on the rise

Frustration at the poor performance of rail services is partly to blame

Violent attacks on railway workers are at their highest level for 30 years, a report says.

Assaults resulting in hospital treatment or workers being off for at least three days were up 22% for the 12-month period ending 31 March 2001.

Insufficient staffing means that some stations have become a hooligans' playground

Vernon Hince
RMT

The Health and Safety Executive which published the figures said they were "shocking and unacceptable".

The HSE report also revealed that Signals Passed at Danger (Spads), were down by 122 to 446.

More than 30 of the 462 rail workers seriously assaulted were so badly injured they required hospital treatment.

In response to the figures on the number of attacks on staff, Vernon Hince, acting general secretary of the biggest rail union, the RMT, said: "We are extremely concerned at the upward trend in assaults on staff - and particularly by the dramatic rise in attacks this year."

"Insufficient staffing means that some stations have become a hooligans' playground, especially late at night.

"This is threatening alike to passengers and the few staff on duty.

Rail privatisation blamed

"Clearly not enough resources are being put into preventative measures - and we believe that railway privatisation has been a primary cause.

"Staffing is often cut to the bone when profit rather than safety is the driving force."

Some of the worst examples of rail violence include:

• Two members of staff were punched in the face by a passenger at Manor House Tube station in North London after they discovered he was travelling with a child ticket.

• A ticket inspector suffered a fractured jaw and required three months off work after he was attacked by a group of youths in West Croydon.

• A train driver in Hyndland, Scotland was threatened with a knife by three youths, one of whom then threw a bottle at the driver causing facial cuts and bruising.

The HSE also reported a total of 17 deaths in train incidents in the 2000-01 period - which included four in the Hatfield derailment and six in February's Selby crash.

The figure was down on the total for 1999-2000 which incorporated the 31 people killed in October 1999's Paddington rail disaster.

The report also revealed that 300 people, including 10 children, were killed trespassing on the railways in 2000-01 - up 9% on the previous year.

Mr Coleman said there was no room for complacency

The number of significant train incidents - those with the potential to cause most harm to passengers - fell from 97 in 1999-2000 to 89 in 2000-01.

The number of incidents as a whole was reduced by 3% to 1,838 with vandalism accounting for more than half of these incidents.

The number of broken rails reported was down 24% on the 1999-2000 total to 721 and the number of HSE-served enforcement notices - directives demanding action from rail companies - rose from 45 to 51.

The head of the HSE's Railways Inspectorate, Vic Coleman, said: "There are some trends in the right direction but deaths at Selby and Hatfield, followed by the widely acknowledged weaknesses in risk control, show there is absolutely no room for complacency.

'Tough Action'

He warned that rail companies could expect the HSE to take 'tough action' if safety improvements were not carried out.

George Muir, director general of the Association of Train Operation Companies said the industry had made solid progress in the right direction but there were still areas of concern.

"While SPADS for the year were the lowest ever recorded," he said, "recent figures are showing a worrying increase.

"We must redouble our efforts to drive SPADS down while continuing with the implementation of the train protection and warning systems which will create an even safer railway."

Rod Muttram, chief executive of Railway Safety, a Railtrack subsidiary company said: "It is disappointing that the number of trespasser, suicide and workforce fatalities have increased, but the industry has launched some key initiatives to tackle these issues."