MOST rail passengers felt uneasy as they climbed aboard their first train after the Paddington disaster. They found the sheer scale of the horror impossible to forget.

Anxiety grew after it was revealed that the likely cause of the crash - a train passing through a red signal - was not an unusual occurrence.

Railtrack, as the company responsible for rail safety post-privatisation, attracted much of the flak. In truth, the blame should have been shared by generations of politicians who had failed to invest properly in rail safety.

But Railtrack is working hard to restore passenger confidence. Today the company revealed that the Train Protection Warning System is being installed, first at safety blackspots and then across the network. This is not as failsafe as Automatic Train Protection (ATP), but it is a major improvement.

Fear turned to anger following the Paddington disaster. Passengers began asking awkward questions.

After Clapham ten years earlier, investigators had recommended the installation of ATP. That technology would have prevented the Paddington crash.

But Railtrack is now responding to the potential dangers and the criticism.

In our area, a blackspot railway signal outside York station is to have the Train Protection Warning System installed to prevent what the industry knows as SPADs (signals passed at danger).

The signal was spotlighted on a national list of danger points after it emerged there had been eight SPADs in as many years.

This work must continue - and then move on to ATP - so the travelling public can in future board a train in absolute confidence.