Thames Trains has been fined £2 million over the horrific Paddington rail crash.

The penalty was imposed on the company, which had admitted two health and safety offences, by a judge at the Old Bailey yesterday.

It was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £75,000.

Mr Justice Bell said: "This is not a case of putting profit before safety. I accept that."

He was told earlier by the prosecution the crash would have been avoided if the driver of the Thames train involved had been properly trained.

Michael Hodder, 31, went through a signal at danger at Ladbroke Grove, just outside Paddington station in west London.

At 8.09am his train, bound for Bedwyn in Wiltshire, crashed with a Paddington-bound First Great Western express travelling from Cheltenham Spa in Gloucestershire.

Six passengers on the Great Western train and its driver Brian Cooper, 52, died in the collision along with 24 people on the Thames train.

The current record penalty under a Health And Safety Executive prosecution of this kind - £1.5 million - was imposed upon First Great Western after it admitted health and safety offences over the 1997 Southall crash in which seven people were killed.

Thames Trains chairman Martin Ballinger said: "As Lord Cullen's inquiry showed, this accident was foreseeable and preventable.

"Thames has consistently accepted and admitted that although improvements to its training programmes were being implemented, they had not been completed at the time of the accident.

"The fine imposed on us today is calculated with reference to the scale of the tragedy and the assessment of the extent to which Thames contributed to the exposure of passengers to risk of injury.

"Thames recognises that the value of the fine is irrelevant to the grief and suffering of the bereaved and injured.

"It does not relate in any way to the many tens of millions of pounds paid out by insurers in compensation.

"I share a sense of personal failure with many in the industry.

"No words can adequately express the heartfelt anguish and sorrow felt throughout Thames Trains for the devastating consequences."

Tuesday April 06, 2004