Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The Clapham Train Accident by Greg Morse covers far more than that one crash. It shows that the reason trains collided at Clapham Junction in 1988 may have been a wire that touched a terminal, preventing a signal from showing ‘danger’, but Morse traces the causes back through the privatisation of British Rail; through its Sectorisation; and earlier. Although Morse gives us the names of the individuals who were involved in the negligent maintenance work, it makes it clear that their omissions were caused by inadequate direction; time pressures which, in turn, were caused by lack of money; lack of training; etc..

The book doesn’t just cover Clapham. Morse also gives us the same analysis of many other accidents, both before and after Clapham, from Polmont in 1984 and Colwich in 1986 to Carmont in 2020. Ironically, as I started to type this review on the morning of 23rd October 2023, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch has just advised me that its report into an incident at South Wingfield on 26 October 2022 is now published. Two trains entered the same section of track (which the signalling system should never, ever permit). Fortunately, the second driver stopped his train in time and no-one was hurt. However, as Andrew Hall, Chief Inspector of Rail Accidents says, the reasons not only echoed the Clapham crash of 1988, but also a 2017 collision at Waterloo and the derailment at Dalwhinnie in 2021.

Morse’s book is not just about railway accidents, it explains why organisations lose their corporate memory: there are restructures, where older members of staff are perhaps “encouraged” to take a redundancy package; processes are outsourced to companies who deploy staff with no railway experience whatsoever; documents are produced so that the company can obtain BS5750 (“the quality certification”) but are then filed in such a way that no-one can sit down and read through them to get a coherent story.

I commend this book to anyone with an interest in modern railways, but also to anyone with an interest in modern organisations and/or in system failures. It’s a cracking read and never becomes dry and academic. Morse constantly, constantly, show us human beings doing the best job they can in their circumstances at that time - and Appendix One comprises the names of the 35 people who lost their lives at Clapham. Morse never forgets that the victims of the accidents are humans, perhaps with spouses, perhaps with children, such as Bill Webb, a victim of Clapham whose daughter’s party for her eighth birthday was that evening.

NetGalley, Colin Edwards

Competition as featured in

Rail

The Clapham Train Accident will act as a cautionary tale for everyone old and new, not just in rail, but also other safety critical industries. It will help readers think actions through to all consequences, helping them too to make safer decisions, particularly when changing a system, technology, or method of working.

IRSE journal - October 2023