Learning important things I didn't know

摘要

I AM writing this in Australia, where I am attending the International Railway Safety Conference as president of WATTRAIN (World Association of Tourist Trams and Trains). Last month I spoke at a European tourism seminar in Brussels and I have to admit that, all too often, I find that international seminars are not really productive of any tangible result. However, in these two instances, I came away with a real sense of having learnt things I did not know. This was particularly true of the Melbourne safety conference, where shared experiences and ideas quite obviously saved several participants from having to reinvent the wheel. In particular, there were some very interesting facts to emerge about projects in which traffic lights had been installed to replace traditional level crossing flashing lights. In South Africa, they succeeded in reducing incidents by 86%, which compares favourably with Gunther Mackinger's success on the Lokalbahn in Salzburg in reducing incidents by 91 % with a similar project. The other benefit from these events is the networking opportunity. Quite apart from meeting leading lights from the UK's own safety industry and regulators, the Australians share many of our values and - dare I say it - problems, which they often address more effectively than we do.