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As the separation between track and train widens with time, so the ability of our industry to respond to the media following major incidents fragments. In the aftermath of the Hatfield derailment we remember Railtrack Zone director Richard Middleton and GNER Chief Executive Christopher Garnett standing shoulder to shoulder at an al fresco press conference in a car dealership car park, where the emergency services had set up the temporary accommodation.
Contrast this with the response to the Grayrigg derailment, where Virgin Trains could not dissociate itself from Network Rail fast enough. And when Network Rail Chief Executive John Armitt stood up to take responsibility, Virgin were there with an immediate critique. There was even a concerted campaign, misguided in our view, to emphasise the role of staff and the construction of the train in ensuring that a an infrastructure failure had not had more horrendous consequences.
All of which emphasises our long held concern that in today's industry there is no one able to speak for the railway as a whole when things go wrong. No one, save the railway press.
And, by and large, we did a competent job. We particularly commend a fellow editor who took a news team to his preserved line the day after the accident and showed them what a set of points looked like and how they worked.
Of course, it does get easier after the first frantic hours, when almost nothing is known, speculation is rife and the insatiable meat grinder of 24 hour rolling news has to keep talking when nothing is happening.
These are the golden hours when the battle for the railway's image is lost and won. As soon as you put the phone down on one call, it rings again with another reporter wanting to know what caused the accident? The fax chatters or the modem runs hot as we are asked to check diagrams of points or trains.
Because major accidents are so rare, and people move on, the media, and that includes most transport correspondents, have forgotten what they have learned by the time another major incident occurs. On that unhappy day the railway press will have to guide news rooms, researchers, presenter and reporters up the learning curve again.
Pondering this as we watched television presenters desperately waffling to fill the minutes with only a shot from inside one of the coaches at Lambrigg sent as an SMS message from a mobile ‘phone, we came up with a possible solution. What is needed is a ‘Railway Emergency Pack', in every newsroom.
Then, when a major incident occurred, the editors could open the folder and find inside the basic background information needed, in terms of text, graphics and statistics, for that night's TV news or tomorrow morning's front page. Simplicity would be the key feature. A 21 st Century media version of a 1970s Ladybird book would be about right.
This is a diesel train, this is an electric train, this is a locomotive. These are the crashworthiness features in the interior. These are the bogies, these are the wheels, this is how the motors drive the wheels, here are the brakes, this is how the brakes are applied. Here is a cab, here are the controls, here are the safety systems. All with simple media friendly graphics.
Here is the track, here are the sleepers. These are the rails and this is how points work. Similarly for signalling. Similarly for level crossings.
Then background material. How many route miles, journeys a year, tonnes of freight. Basic safety statistics, how accidents are investigated, how safety is organised. And all, we repeat, in the most basic terms. Under pressure the media want it kept simple and easily assimilated.
But who could produce such a resource? Not Network Rail or the Train Operating Companies who, when the worst happens have to look to their own interests, and corporate manslaughter legislation could make for even greater wariness. Not the Office of Rail Regulation, which is now the safety regulator too. Nor the Railway Forum, which has no official locus.
Which leaves the Rail Safety & Standards Board as both the only and the obvious organisation to take on the concept, should it have merit. Today, RSSB's role already extends beyond the two ‘S's in its title. It handles a programme of research, both applied and ‘blue sky'. It knows the railway and it has authority.
We have already written to the Board outlining our idea. We trust and hope that it will be a long time before such a Railway Emergency Pack would have to be opened, but we believe it could play a small but vital role in ensuring that when things go wrong our industry is reported accurately.