Another day, another fatal train crash. The report is out: a red signal failure. And what is the official response?
A chorus of self-congratulation about how ‘internationally lauded’ our safety systems are. We are the Romans insisting our aqueducts are the envy of the world while the Visigoths batter at the gates. The truth is that British rail is a decaying Victorian relic, a monument to a past we no longer deserve.
We prattle on about our ‘world-class’ safety record even as the bodies are counted. This is not competence, it is hubris. A signal failed.
A train crashed. People died. And yet the tone from the boardrooms and the white papers is one of smug vindication.
Let us stop esteeming our own exceptionalism long enough to fix the bloody signals. The Victorians, for all their faults, at least knew when to admit failure and build something better. We seem only capable of polishing the brass on a sinking ship.
