Lifeboats arrive on the Thames

After more than a decade of investigations, recommendations and campaigning, the Thames is finally to have lifeboats for the first time. The lack of a dedicated search-and-rescue service on the river was severely criticised during investigations into the 1989 sinking of the Marchioness pleasure cruiser, in which 51 people died.

The first of seven Royal National Lifeboat Institution high-speed jet-boats has been lowered by crane into the Victoria deep-water terminal, ready to begin service on 2 January.

The new Tiger Marine fast-response craft, capable of 40 knots, aim to respond to incidents within 15 minutes. Three lifeboat stations will be manned by RNLI crews 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at Tower Pier, Chiswick Pier and Gravesend.

A fourth at Teddington will be operated by volunteers, and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency will co-ordinate rescue operations from a Port of London control room in Woolwich.

The service comes as a result of the Thames Safety Inquiry into the fatal collision between the Marchioness and the dredger Bowbelle. The inquiry called for improved rescue cover.

Earlier this year, the Evening Standard carried out a five-month undercover investigation into safety on Thames pleasure boats. The law states that any person "employed or engaged in any capacity" on board should receive basic safety training. Only one boat firm out of seven which employed our reporter gave him such instruction - contradicting the advice of Lord Justice Clarke, who conducted a formal inquiry after the tragedy, and the Marchioness inquest jury.

Government ministers ordered an urgent inquiry after our reports, and London Mayor Ken Livingstone threatened to withdraw the licences of vessels using the capital's piers, if they failed to teach six safety requirements to those working on pleasure boats, including emergency procedures, location of escape exits and how to put on a lifejacket.

The Marchioness Action Group, including relatives of those who died, has campaigned for recommendations on safety training for crew members to be implemented as a matter of urgency.

RNLI operations director, Michael Vlasto, said today: "There are in excess of 100 incidents on the river each year, and over 100,000 people use the Thames every day. By providing well-trained and wellequipped lifeboat crews and calling on 177 years of lifeboat experience, we can provide a dedicated rescue service."

Each £143,000 lifeboat will be manned by a crew of three - two full-time and one volunteer - with more than 150 volunteers enlisted. Four boats will be in service and there will be three on stand-by.

River rescues were previously carried out by agencies including the police, the fire brigade and the Port of London Authority. Barbara Davis, whose son Jonathan survived the Marchioness tragedy while his friend Dianne Lim, 26, died, said the police boats were not designed to pull people out of the water.

She said the new service is "a legacy to those who died, those left behind and the work the relatives have put in over the years to make the river a safer place".

At the public inquiry into the tragedy, Michael Mansfield QC, representing the Marchioness Contact Group of survivors and bereaved, said it had been "a disaster waiting to happen", with safety and rescue provision on the Thames "seriously deficient".