IT is two years this week since the Selby rail disaster claimed the lives of ten passengers and left us all with nightmare memories of rescuers clambering over tragically twisted metal.

Finally, the absurd and infuriating financial wrangle which increased the risk of another rail disaster has finally been resolved with yesterday's announcement of a national protocol by Transport Minister John Spellar.

It is not before time but better late than never.

After the disaster, in which a Land-Rover plunged from the M62 onto the line below, The Northern Echo painstakingly checked 50 railway bridges on the East Coast Main Line between Newcastle and York.

What we discovered was repeated evidence of woeful neglect which meant there was often little to stop out-of-control vehicles landing on rail tracks.

Who was responsible for improving safety? The local authorities said it was Railtrack, and Railtrack said it was the local authorities. Lives were at stake but so were precious budgets. A scandal indeed.

We commend those local authorities which did not wait for a Government adjudication, notably Durham County Council which was the first local authority to act and worry about who paid later, and North Yorkshire County Council which quickly followed suit.

In striving to dodge the issue of who should foot the bill, officials on both sides of the dodgy railway fence have argued that the Selby disaster was the million-to-one result of a freak set of circumstances. But the records show that plenty of other motor vehicles have landed on railway lines.

Now that the Government has spelled out a formula to establish how repairs should be paid for, we look forward to a real acceleration in safety work.

Two years is a very long time to wait for such a crucial argument to be settled. There can no longer be any excuses when it comes to the Scandal of the Railway Bridges.