22 July 2005
Two-thirds of Britain's rail stations do not have CCTV recording equipment, despite concerns that the overland network is vulnerable to terror attacks similar to those in London on July 7 and Madrid in March last year.
The importance of CCTV in stations was demonstrated by the identification last week of the four presumed London bombers on footage from Luton station.
Network Rail owns most of Britain's 2,507 rail stations, yet leases all but 17 of the largest to private train operating companies (Tocs). They are responsible for maintaining and running the stations, as well as installing passenger safety equipment, such as CCTV.
Tocs are not contractually obliged to install CCTV, as the privatisation model pursued by the Conservative government in 1996 assumed that they would automatically invest in passenger safety and comfort to attract more custom to their franchised cafés and newsagents.
However, a National Audit Office report published this week criticised this reliance on commercial interest to provide for adequate passenger safety, and urged the Department for Transport to be more stringent in setting minimum requirements for stations.
The report also recommends that the department seeks alternative funding arrangements for rural stations, which face a 'chicken-and-egg' scenario in which low usage means low investment.
'The existing model hasn't delivered, so [the department] needs to think again,' said the NAO's director of transport studies, Keith Holden. 'The industry needs to do more to attract funds from outside the private sector if it's going to be able to fund improvements.'
A spokeswoman for First Great Western Link, which runs services and stations into and out of London Paddington and Gatwick airport, confirmed that more than half of its stations did not have CCTV.
A spokesman for South West Trains, which runs stations on routes to and from London Waterloo, said that three-quarters of its stations had CCTV, but admitted that much of this had been provided through funding from Transport for London.
The NAO also criticised the speed at which stations were being adapted for disabled access. 'More than half of Britain's stations are not fully accessible to disabled people,' it noted.
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