BBC 1993. British Rail: Old, Dirty and Late

[JamieLei]

An extremely interesting documentary filmed in 1993 about the failures and workings of Network SouthEast, in the division which is now managed by SouthEastern. Its very biased against British Rail but it shows many amazing insights into what seems like a completely different network. The old slam-door units give me creeps every time I see them, such as the woman who forced her way into a compartment at Lewisham despite the guard's effort to stop her. Or the footage many a time of the platform shutters at Charing Cross having to be closed to prevent overcrowding.

The driver who talked about rebranding, painting units red white and blue, and calling passengers "customers" brought all too obvious similarities with privatisation. But 16 years on, things seem far better. Slam-door units have been entirely phased out on commuter stock increasing punctuality and making the units safer. Passengers are more willing to accept defeat with automatic doors than they are with slam-doors. And passenger information has got much much better - as a direct comparison with the film, commuters can now see the exact why their train was late, diverted or cancelled. His other note about requiring more funding also came true. I would argue that we have a considerably better railway today than 16 years ago, but we've also dramatically increased the subsidy to the railways.

The film was very biased against Network SouthEast, and its important not to view it as typical. The filmmakers picked the worst-performing division with the largest proportion of slam door stock and greatest potential for problems, whereas the Chilterns, London Midland Region and Great Northern Electrics all had predominantly automatic-door stock by 1993 I believe. Only once in the entire hour did they show a single clip of a Networker, which had all been introduced, preferring to show the old falling-apart 60s-built slam-door stock. Lastly, it seemed they picked the worst week for reporting, involving overrunning engineering works and a bomb explosion. It's also important to put the delay numbers into context: SouthEastern didn't seem to have a good day yesterday with 121 trains delayed more than 5 minutes out of 1755, but this still equated to a PPM of 93.1%.

It's definitely worth a watch. It's about 50 minutes long and in 5 parts - just follow the video comments for the next part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-peIDOiTt8

[Kevo00]

Legendary documentary, part of the BBC's 'Inside Story' series, all of which were great films. I remember watching it when it went out originally. Some of the features of the system do seem to have improved considerably since then. Networkers were still being introduced I thought, but perhaps they ran on the line via Victoria which would explain why only one is seen in the film. Sadly bomb scares were all too frequent in the early 1990s before the IRA ceasefire, and engineering overuns do happen.

[beeb375]

Quite good indeeds, but one of the reasons that, even with the improvements, I never want to work in London.

[Dave]

A very interesting insight.

[welshdragon]

My girlfriend and I watched it and found it very interesting, i wonder if there will be a modern day version?

[caveatemptor]

If ye didn't want yer trains exploding ye shouldn't have taken our six counties!!

Seriously though, I am having connection problems but will watch this. What, exactly, was the main concern with slam doors? Safety?

[Kevo00]

Well it was one problem - people used to fall out of trains after leaning on the doors. Nowadays remaining slam door trains like the HSTs have central door locking.

[Ameecher]

The major problem with slamdoor stock being the appalling crashworthiness and declining reliability.

[teccuk]

The major problem with slamdoor stock being the appalling crashworthiness and declining reliability.

But they shouldn't ever crash in the first place

[Ameecher]

Well no but accidents do happen and an accident in mk1 stock is always going to be a lot worse than in modern stock.

[JamieLei]

Hence why the Pendolinos were built like a tank such that when a major accident did happen, only 1 fatality resulted of an old lady. Of course 1 is still too much, but for a train rolling down a bank extremely quite remarkable. If anything it proved how crashworthy the Pendolinos are.

The Clapham Junction crash on the other hand involving two slam-door sets is generally considered one of the worst rail accidents in the UK in recent years with 35 deaths and 500 injuries.

It's rather naive to think that accidents will never happen, although its appreciated that rail travel is extremely safe. Hence why we have table sets, no seatbelts and the ability to walk around which just doesn't happen on other forms of transport.

[Ameecher]

Didn't the lady who died at Grayrigg did of a heart attack? Pedantic I know but still, it was the shock of the crash rather than injuries inflicted by the crash that killed her.

[Kevo00]

I remember watching the news when that happened, and got the feeling that the media were a weensy bit disappointed that were not more casualties.

[JamieLei]

I think it appeared quite odd that the death toll was 1 when there was some pretty shocking images to accompany the report. The media loves a good disaster - and Branson used the event to publicise that the Pendos were "built like tanks". Certainly in previous crashes under similar circumstances, we've be expecting coaches to be folded over double, or at least dented. Apart from rolling down the hill, coaches being separated and emergency windows being broken for passenger escape, the coach bodies don't seem to have been damaged at all...



And compared to the Clapham Junction crash (although it involved 3 separate units and not a simple derailment):

[Dave]

There was a noticeable twist in the driving car, although nothing to go sick about.

The Pendolino was fantastic.

[Kevo00]

And compared to the Clapham Junction crash (although it involved 3 separate units and not a simple derailment):

Its the squished carriage in the middle that is the most disturbing. And more disturbing still that the government and industry ignored the findings of the inquiry and refused to install AWS which might have prevented Southall and Ladbroke Grove.

[JamieLei]

AWS was fitted in both disasters on the WCML but apparently wasn't activated in the case of Southall (else it would have almost-certainly prevented the accident). In the case of Ladbroke Grove it probably wouldn't have prevented it. Apparently drivers weren't

When First Great Western took over the Intercity franchise they mandated that all trains be fitted with working AWS and ATP. Thank God there haven't been any more preventable accidents since in the Great Western Region (there's nothing anyone could have done about Upton Nevrett)

[Dave]

Ufton Nervet*

And if we look at this decade - it doesn't look like AWS or any signalling system was to blame for any of the minor or major crashes.

Which is a good thing.

[beeb375]

Just as an aside, one of my lecturers was called as an expert witness into the Southall crash, and recommended that ATP should not be installed system wide, because the cost per expected life saved was massively higher than the maximum that is normally used to prevent a rail accident death, and higher still than the maximum spent to prevent a road accident death. The roads figure these days is ~£1.2m, and the rail figure slightly higher, and ATP would have cost around £10-15m per life saved.

[Comm Cody]

But how much is a life worth? Hmmm.....