Rail is still the safest form of transport but public confidence has been badly battered after three fatal accidents in two years.

After the Southall and Paddington crashes, there has been another disaster at Hatfield in Hertfordshire.

This time, four people were killed, including businessman Steve Arthur, who lived at Old Brighton Road in Pease Pottage, near Crawley.

While there have been inquiries into the two previous tragedies to determine the cause, there seem little doubt about what went wrong at Hatfield.

A broken rail was to blame and Railtrack is saying that the track was simply not up to standard.

This is a shocking admission for a company in charge of our safety while we are travelling by train.

But this disaster and the previous crashes are already leading to improvements.

The problems have been caused by chronic under-investment, both by British Rail before privatisation and by Railtrack afterwards.

Railtrack has been stepping up investment for the past two years but the railway infrastructure is so huge this job cannot be undertaken all at once.

It is appalling that brilliant and well-loved men such as Mr Arthur had to die so needlessly but the pressure on Railtrack to ensure maximum safety levels is now so great that the chances of future tragedies is slowly starting to recede.