An excellent leader article in the Guardian today, bringing a much needed sense of perspective to things. Reading the whole thing is recommended, but the key quote is here:
Ten deaths in five years is a good safety record, not a bad one. One death in a 90mph derailment is a tribute to a safe railway, not a dangerous one, even if someone has been negligent this time. In the same five years, more than 15,000 people have died on the roads and more than a million have been injured. That is the real transport-safety scandal. Most of these road accidents received no public attention at all or were only briefly noticed. But then they can only be blamed on human beings, not on wicked corporations.
I travelled over the section of track in question a couple of times back in October. I’ll be happy to travel over it — or any other high speed line — again in the future