'Danger' in rail safety scheme.

A NEW pounds 3.5 billion rail safety system would result in more than 10 times as many people being killed than saved each year, it was claimed today.

The Commission for Integrated Transport says the system, recommended after the 1999 Paddington crash, would reduce track capacity and drive more people on to the roads where fatality rates are far higher.

The new system is the European Rail Traffic Management System, which would prevent trains going through red lights.

The commission said introducing the first phase of ERTMS would save, on average, one life on the railways every 16 months but the increased number of people using roads would lead to 13 to 21 more road deaths a year.