What Cullen said about Paddington

Lord Cullen's official report into Paddington found the rail industry guilty of a devastating catalogue of mistakes and oversights leading to the disaster.

Railtrack was named as the main culprit for its repeated failures to improve Signal 109, passed at danger by a Thames Trains turbo before it piled into a First Great Western express. Lord Cullen's 290-page report concluded there had been:

? Institutional failure" within the entire industry in dealing with Signals Passed At Danger (Spads)

? Railtrack had been guilty of "lamentable failure" in responding to the recommendations of inquiries into two previous accidents in the area - including one at the same signal only 18 months before

? Railtrack had effectively ignored three written warnings made by First Great Western before the crash, even though the signal was passed at danger eight times in the previous six years

? The poor siting of Signal 109, coupled with the effect of "bright sunlight at a low angle" were factors which led Thames Trains driver Michael Hodder to pass through the red danger light

? A slack and complacent regime" among signalling staff at the centre in Slough who were "not alive to the potentially dire consequences of a Spad". A quicker reaction by signallers could have prevented or greatly reduced the severity of the crash

? Railtrack had failed to give adequate training to signallers. If the signaller involved had been better trained then "it may well have been the case that he would have been able to send the emergency message in time" to bring the Thames Trains turbo to a halt.

? Thames Trains was condemned for "gaps in training" where some driving instructors did not realise they were supposed to teach knowledge of individual routes.

? Successive Labour and Conservative governments were criticised for failing to install the Train Protection and Warnings System (TPWS), which causes a train to automatically break if it passes a red signal. It would have prevented the crash

Politicians and all involved in the industry pledged to make the railways safer after the Paddington crash.

? Transport Minister Lord Macdonald described it as an "awful accident" which had to lead to "a more open, more responsive, more rigorous culture of safety across our whole rail industry". The victims and their families were owed "nothing less", he said.

? John Prescott, the minister in charge of transport, said: "We will not tolerate any more unsafe working practices. The time for passing the buck has stopped." Mr Prescott also warned train operating companies that they risked their franchises if they did not improve safety. He also said the Government was considering passing a corporate manslaughter law: "It is going for consultation and there will be a proposal for publication at the end of this year."

? Gerald Corbett, former Railtrack chief executive, speaking several days after the crash: "If that signal had been green I would have resigned immediately. But the signal wasn't green, the signal was red and in good working order."

? Bob Poynter, managing director of BR's Western Region for six years, said: "'The accidents at Watford, Southall and Paddington were entirely unnecessary."

? Des Collins, solicitor for some of the families in the Southall and Watford rail crashes, said: "It's a watertight case. It's not the passengers' fault."

Representatives of the bereaved and injured responded with a mixture of dismay and resignation to today's decision, writes Dick Murray.

Carole Bell, who was injured in the Southall crash two years earlier but has joined the Paddington survivors to campaign for improved safety, said: "All those involved will be bitterly disappointed at today's decision. This comes just after the anniversary of the disaster - how many more kicks in the teeth can these people take?"

Mrs Bell, 36, from Reading, who suffered a broken collar bone and ribs said: "Lord Cullen in his report put much of the blame on Railtrack. This was followed by a lengthy public inquiry and the publication of a glossy report. What was the point in spending all that money to find out who was responsible if after all that, no action is taken? This decision does not make it any easier. We all believe that someone should be held accountable for what happened."

Martin Minns, spokesman for the Paddington Action and Survivors Group which is campaigning for improved safety said: "The group has been resigned to the fact for some while that the CPS were not going to prosecute. We are more interested now in improving rail safety. We take the view we have bigger fish to fry. The point is, who do you prosecute?"