IT is very disappointing that Railtrack took five months to remove potentially lethal debris lying next to the East Coast Main Line.

It is impossible to create an accident-proof railway, but it is possible to reduce the potential for accidents. Instead, Railtrack presented vandals with a ready supply of weapons.

It is reassuring that the court heard yesterday that Railtrack's successor, Network Rail, says that it has increased staffing and spent £10m on lineside clearance work.

While the organisation appears to have learned its lessons, we hope that safety is returning to the culture of railway staff.

In October 2001, a Railtrack manager - or managers - was informed of the concerns of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) about the state of the track near Darlington. He - or they - did nothing practical about it.

In February 2002, when he - or they - received the legal notice from the HSE warning about the dangers, he - or they - still weren't bothered enough to act practically.

Practically doesn't just mean organising a working party to remove the debris. If the internal workings of Railtrack ground so slowly that a dangerous problem was not being attended to, he - or they - had a duty to the travelling public to blow the whistle.

Yesterday's fine is, in real terms, unimportant and meaningless. Bishop Auckland magistrates have effectively fined the tax-payer for Railtrack's failings as it is the tax-payer who will pick up this particular £10,000 bill.

Indeed, Network Rail's statement that it now has four times more people working on such incidents than Railtrack had is just as meaningless if their culture has not changed.

That culture has to be that safety comes first, no matter how difficult or awkward it may be.

But that doesn't just mean mid-ranking managers who don't take much notice of HSE notices. It includes governments. In July the Prime Minister himself promised that by the autumn he would have an answer to the question of who pays for bridges to be made safe and so avert the potential for another Selby.

Now that decision has been delayed until next year. If the Government at the highest level can't bend its back and break a sweat to push the cause of safety, can we really expect staff at lower levels to even begin rolling their sleeves up?