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Time for the industry to disengage gracefully from the safety pressure groups
Stephen Byers looked every inch the technocrat. With his grey hair en brosse, rimless spectacles, thin lips and flat delivery you could see his as Stalin's Minister for Tractor Production assuring the Supreme Soviet that the Five Year Plan would be fulfilled three years early.
But new labour makeover does not make the man, and at heart he was still the lefty polytechnic law lecturer and it was his naivety in his dealings with the accident bereaved an injured groups that brought him down.
He was not alone. Despite the ‘profits before safety' tag, Gerald Corbett is a humane and caring man and I believe this was his undoing.
Long service railway managers knew that railways could kill their passengers, workforce and members of the general public. They would encounter suicides, staff fatalities and, very rarely, fatal train accidents at first hand. Like doctors and nurses, and military men, they would become professionally dispassionate – what military historian John Keegan calls the ‘mask of command'.
Gerald hadn't been through this process. The fact that his company could kill people was a terrible realisation. He felt he had to do something for those who had suffered in accidents. Thus, after Hatfield, with his wife, he visited the bereaved and injured and arranged for Railtrack to provide long term support. And he too had a meeting with the Paddington Survivors Group (PSG), then headed by Pam Warren, whose mask to protect healing facial burns became a symbol for the accident.
As Pam Warren describes the meeting, ‘He came in as Chief Executive of Railtrack and left as Gerald Corbett, he said sorry and he seemed to mean it, it was quite emotional'. Indeed it was, and I believe this emotional overload, when he was unsupported by a pusillanimous Chairman, led to the non-executive directors, demanding his resignation. Their concerns included his close links with accident survivors.
Enter new Railtrack Chairman John Robinson, another FNB. At his first AGM on 14 July 2001 he called for one minute's silence before the meeting started. He said "Above everything, we think, on an occasion like this, of the families of those killed, injured and shocked after Ladbroke Grove, Hatfield and Great Heck. As a board we are deeply sorry that these accidents occurred".
This struck me as one of those corporate statements which are demonstrably redundant because you would not say the opposite. Call me a cynical old curmudgeon but I believe that by picking out the high profile accidents Robinson was blatantly spinning at a time when it was under pressure over ‘profits before safety'.
Before the AGM Robinson had a private meeting with bereaved and victims.. Afterwards Tony Knox, who was injured in the Ladbroke Grove accident said that he felt he could ‘do business' with the new Chairman. ‘He (Robinson) seemed genuinely appalled that our welfare hadn't been followed up'.
Ten weeks later Robinson walked into his famous ambush with Transport Secretary Stephen Byers. Unlike Gerald Corbett, there was no cause and effect, but I believe he was naïve in his meeting with the Safe Trains Action Group (STAG).
A month before the Railtrack AGM, I had experienced the most, indeed the only, distasteful episode in 25 years of railway journalism. It came after the press conference for the Report of Lord Cullen's inquiry into Ladbroke Grove held at the Rose Court headquarters of the Health & Safety Executive.
Before the main briefing we were told that there would be two additional press conferences afterwards, held by the bereaved and survivors in separate rooms. The HSE's rationale was that it was better to have these organisations making press comment from inside the building rather than outside on the steps.
After the main event Pam Warren's PSG went off to their room. STAG, lawyer Louise Christion in command, tried to commandeer the large room where the HSE's press conference had been held.
‘No' said the HSE press chief, steering Ms Christian towards the other room, ‘we agreed you would hold your conference in a separate room'. The STAG members followed. Only for Louise to return. More argument. ‘But the television cameras are in here' reasoned Louise.
Another journalist asked why there couldn't be a single press conference for the two organisation. ‘Because they're a bunch of shysters snarled a STAG member'.
By now, all this too-ing and fro-ing had reduced some of the STAG members to tears, understandable since the cold prose of Cullen's report had dealt with the deaths of loved ones. In the scrum there was one island of dignity, Peter Macauley who lost his daughter at Ladbroke Grove. ‘Petty arguing about groups is not advancing train safety', he declared. The HSE press officer surrendered to Ms Christian and a semblance of order was restored.
Several people then testified, some with photos of the dead on the table. When it was Mr Knox's turn, he held up a poster with a photo of Gerald Corbett ‘Wanted for serial killings and guilty arrogance, negligence and allegedly manslaughter'.
And this, of course, is one reason for the split between PSG and STAG. PSG won't accept the bereaved from the accident and consider themselves as a rail safety campaigning group only. STAG is a campaigning group too, but it also wants those responsible for injuries and bereavement held to account. On that day in June 2001 Mr Knox summed it up as ‘I'd like a prosecution. It's not a noble sentiment but a little vengeance would not go amiss'. He dismissed the PSG as ‘just a self publicity thing'.
So Gerald who cared but spoke to the wrong group was a villain; new boy John Robinson was someone you could work with. What about Stephen Byers?
On September 12 he had a meeting with Pam Warren plus other PSG members and their PR man Martin Minns. What on earth was Byers playing at?
Actually, he seems to have been playing to the gallery, judging by Pam Warren's report of the meeting which emerged subsequently. According to her notes ‘We complained about lack of progress about rail safety and he said Railtrack would not be making trouble for much longer. He said his preference would be for a not for profit company'. But, it is alleged that he also told the Group to watch for an announcement around 8 October ‘that would be extremely pleasing to them'. Railtrack was put into Administration on October 7.
If this reported conversation is true, and I can't see why four people should make it up, Byers was guilty of a level of indiscretion which confirmed him as unsuitable for high office. A small campaigning group had been given a broad hint, which would have caused meltdown had it been known in the City, that the government was planning to restructure Railtrack.
But this shocking breach of security remained confidential until the fatal accident at Potters Bar. Then, according to Mrs Warren, ‘'We thought the Government was really going to make some progress, but after Potters Bar we felt that there were so many broken promises that we decided to go public'.
So while hard line STAG was persuading the Crown Prosecution Service to review its decision not to prosecute over Ladbroke Grove, PSG nuked Stephen Byers. The Railtrack Private Shareholders Action Group (RPSAG) which had been working up its case against the minister for misfeasance in public office, couldn't believe its luck.
Here was proof that the Government had been planning to effectively renationalise Railtrack without compensation through administration. An earlier threat to take Byers to court had already resulted in £300million compensation being offered. Now, the prospect of being cross examined over Mrs Warren's claims meant resignation unavoidable. As Pam Warren put it, ‘I would say to people, who do they believe, the Government or me? I know what I heard'.
When Mrs Warren went nuclear on May 22, she was just stepping down as Chairman of PSG. Press coverage referred to Simon Benham the new Chairman and Mr Minns the PRO.
Enter Dan Corry, Stephen Byers' special advisor on transport. Dan, is an acquaintance rather than a chum. We met at conferences. He once asked me if anyone had challenged the Ford Factor for the inflation of infrastructure costs post privatisation. When I said ‘no' he walked off looking thoughtful.
With his boss under attack, Corry decided to check the motives of the attackers. So he e-mailed Party Central Office, for a search on Excalibur – Labour's information data base, a sort of political TOPS.
What the e-mails saidDan Corry Can you get some sort of check done on the people who are making a bit of a fuss on the Paddington Survivors Group attacking Stephen Byers (ie the ones taking over from Pam Warren)? The names are in the press.
Labour Party What sort of check?
Dan Corry Basically, are they Tories?
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Just when things were calming down after Stephen Byers' resignation on 28 May, on 6 June someone, probably in the Department of Transport, leaked the story that Dan Corry's e-mails had been seeking to ‘dish the dirt' on Pam Warren. Initially, the Department denied that the e-mail existed. It then back-tracked and published the communication (see excerpt).
As you can see Corry excluded Pam Warren from the information needed. He wanted to know about the new people leading the PSG. And advisor Martin Minns is indeed a Tory – but so what? People keep hinting that I should mention Louise Christian's hard left history. But so what, again. My experience tells me that all politicians, of any persuasion are bad for railways – and all the other industries I have worked in.
Anyway, why let reality get in the way of a good story. Pam Warren, described the ‘attack' as a ‘pretty sneaky and nasty thing to do by Government' and added that ‘muck raking is the only interpretation'.
Apologies followed immediately, from Stephen Byers who said that had he known about it he would have stopped the e-mail, from Alistair Darling and from Dan Corry himself, tracked down by television in Japan where he was watching the Football world cup. Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his ‘regret'.
Mrs Warren described Blair's comment as ‘quite insulting'. ‘He talks about regret but he should apologise personally, not just to me, but others who suffered as well', she said
However, given that the PSG had launched an attack on Stephen Byers in the Daily Mail the day before the e-mail was sent, it is not unreasonable that an advisor sought to find out whether there was a political motive behind the move.
In an attempt to clear the slate, Alistair Darling invited the PSG to a private meeting on 13 June. When I asked the Transport Department why the meeting was taking place, I was told by the new head of media that PSG is an influential campaign group and the new Secretary of State is obviously interested in campaigning for railway safety. He added, with a commendably dead pan delivery ‘Mr Byers met the PSG several times'. Quite. But when I asked whether Mr Darling would also be meeting STAG he couldn't say.
After the meeting Mrs Warren said the e-mail incident was closed. ‘We want to move on with rail safety issues. As to what goes on in the political system, we are just lay people'.
She added that she was not yet willing to place her trust in Mr Darling. ‘Time will tell whether he delivers on his promises on safety'.
Why this coverage of the bereaved and victims groups? Because I am concerned that with the Government and the HSE examining the ERTMS Programme Team's (EPT) Report (Modern Railways June) which brought the Joint Inquiry on train protection into the real world, those responsible could submit to emotional correctness.
According to press reports, Darling supported with the EPT Report at the meeting. But with the HSE on the back foot on both Train protection and cup & cone, there is going to be pressure to recover lost ground.
we need a Department prepared to take a firm, but sympathetic line with campaigners on the reality of railway safety. Which is not to say that safety is not an issue. Readers will know my hobby horses, particularly the focus on SPADs at the expense of other more serious issues and more immediate risks.
And there is the matter of intermodal comparisons. Tucked away at the bottom of the ‘News Bulletins' column in the Daily Telegraph on 14 June, under ‘Hikers saved by text message' and ‘Brothers killed in house fire' was an item ‘Safety calls as road deaths rise'
Just 24 lines was devoted to the first increase in road deaths since 1989. Fatalities in 2001 were 3443, 34 up on 2000. Fatalities among the under 15s rose by 14% to 218 and safety groups urged parents to be more vigilant about seat belts and baby seats. Despite a 4% drop in the number of cyclists deaths rose by 9% to 138.
Just 24 lines, about double the number given to the latest monthly SPAD report the previous week.