Alycidon wrote:
I totally agree with the comments made by McShad, the media hysteria has been unbelievable. 3,201 people were killed on Britain's roads in 2005, (the last statistics currently available), not a single fatality on the railways in 2005 (or 2006 for that matter).
I am not a rail-buff, but I have used the British railways extensively, always merely for transportation purposes, and while I feel the British system isn't quite up to the continental European standard, I still think it's just about the safest and the best way to travel in the U.K. I've read all these postings on this thread and agree wholeheartedly with the sensible concessus that the rails are safer than the roads.
I've always enjoyed travelling on British trains, and I've always felt safe while doing so. Oh, there was a period when I was at odds with them when they discontinued the great convenience of the guard's van for storing one's bicycle, but I never stopped using the trains. I wish we had a passenger-train service in North America like the British system.
I too agree with McShad's observation that the media tend to go "totally overboard" when reporting train crashes.