BRITISH Rail is being starved of the money it needs to fund the full
introduction of a high-tech safety system, it was claimed yesterday.
The Automatic Train Protection system prevents drivers from
accidentally passing through red signals, the cause of some of the worst
crashes of recent years.
However, Aslef, the train drivers' union, and Mr John Prescott,
Labour's transport spokesman, say BR is planning to install ATP on only
a limited basis because of lack of funds.
BR denied a Sunday Times report yesterday that the programme had been
shelved altogether due to lack of money but confirmed that the ATP
system would be introduced only on a limited basis.
A spokesman said it was of little value on lines used by small numbers
of trains.
The introduction of ATP was recommended by the Hidden report into the
1988 Clapham rail disaster, in which 35 people died.
ATP would not have prevented the Clapham disaster but it might have
averted others, such as that at Purley in south London in March 1989, in
which five died, and at Bellgrove in Glasgow two days later, which left
two dead.
BR is only at the stage of assessing two different ATP systems which
are being tested on the Paddington to Bristol line and the Chiltern
line, between Marylebone and Aylesbury.
Mr Prescott said: ''The Government is just not providing sufficient
money to meet the safety requirements set down by the Hidden inquiry.''
Mr Derrick Fullick, general secretary of Aslef, said ATP should be
installed throughout the network. He said: ''This is the price we are
paying for the Government's privatisation dogma.''
RMT, the country's largest rail union, pointed out later that BR gave
a commitment to the Hidden inquiry to introduce ATP on a ''large
percentage'' of the network.
RMT leader Jimmy Knapp said the Government should ensure that BR was
able to meet its original commitment.
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