Asked about today's Written Ministerial Statement on Train Protection Systems, the PMOS said that the Transport Secretary had announced that the Government was accepting the advice from the Health and Safety Commission in respect of the timetable for implementation of the European and Rail Traffic Management System.
This was a system that would operate alongside the present Train Protection Warning System which would be fitted across the whole of the rail network by the end of 2003, and which was already delivering safety benefits. As he understood it, we were accepting their advice that the initial timetable set out in the Uff/Cullen Report was not viable. Put to him that it was a "new system delayed" story, the PMOS said that if it was being written as such, no doubt the second sentence of the story would say "on the expert advice of the august Health and Safety Commission".
