News
Liverpool guard gets five years for teen death
by Katie Silvester
A Merseyrail guard has been sentenced to five years in jail for manslaughter after he allowed a train to pull out of a station when a drunk teenager was leaning against the train. Sixteen-year-old Georgina Varley fell between the train and the platform and died instantly.
The incident happened in October 2011 when Christopher McGee, 45, was a guard on a late evening train from West Kirby to Liverpool. Varley was one of a group of drunk teenagers and had accidentally left the train at James Street station, while her friends remained onboard.
McGee gave the signal for the train to pull off, believing that she had moved away from the train. However, CCTV footage shows her with her hands on the windows, but her body well back from the
platform edge, seconds before the train pulled off. Driver Belinda Nicholson told the court that it was not unusual to have the train full of drunk and rowdy people on a Saturday night.
Sentencing McGee, Mr Justice Holroyde said: ‘You did not intend to kill or even injure her, but you displayed an appalling disregard for her safety, and she paid for your criminal negligence with her life.’ When news of the five-year sentence was reported on the Liverpool Echo website, few readers supported the court’s action. Typical comments were: ‘We are with you Christopher McGee’, ‘Christopher McGee we support you’ and ‘Poor poor man, he’s a train guard not a child minder’. Varley’s mother, Paula Redmond, told reporters outside the court that the guard had had ‘very little, if any, regard at all for our daughter and her safety’.
Viaduct replacement set to be complete by Easter
Progress on a £48m project to replace the Loughor Viaduct and upgrade the rail infrastructure between Swansea and Gowerton has reached a critical phase with the first section of the new bridge deck now in place. The Network Rail Loughor Viaduct project is part of a £28m scheme by the Welsh government to redouble the line between Swansea and Gowerton. Mark Langman, Network Rail’s route managing director, said: ‘This vital project
is making good progress. Following installation of the support beams, we are now beginning to slot the bridge decking into place and we are still on track for completion next Easter.’
The project will replace the existing 220-metre timber trestle viaduct that carries the South Wales Main Line between Swansea and Llanelli. The original bridge was built in 1852, having links to Brunel. The original natural stone abutments are still in place, but most of the trestles have been replaced. Network Rail is proposing to keep the existing natural stone abutments and retain four of the existing trestles in situ and erect a small section of the old Loughor viaduct on the West shore as part of its conservation efforts.
The bridge
will remain open throughout most of the work.
Rail Professional gets new editor
Lorna Slade has been named as the new editor of Rail
Professional and will be taking the helm starting from this issue. Slade’s career history includes working as a reporter on the Observer, as well as editing a number of trade magazines including a spell as editor of Aspects, Network Rail’s employee magazine.
‘I’m excited to take on the editorship of Rail Professional at such an interesting time for the rail industry. Katie Silvester has done an amazing job and I hope to continue the high standard of editorial and comment that she brought to the magazine,’ she said.
Silvester, who edited the magazine for six years, is to become a freelance journalist.
Third class travel to make a comeback?
The option of an additional, cheaper, class of travel could be included in franchise bids, a House of Lords discussion has revealed. Lord Myners asked the government whether invitations to bid for new rail franchises permit the introduction of a third passenger class. Conservative Peer Lord Attlee replied that the introduction of a third passenger class was permitted, as long as proposals complied with ‘the ticket and settlement agreement and franchise agreement’.
Third class travel ended in the UK in 1956.
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow
said: ‘Now we know, the door is open for the train operators to introduce a third passenger class as and when it suits them. ‘We knew that this government was winding the clock back on employment, benefit and legal rights but now they are opening up the option to dive back in time more than 50 years to the days of third class rail travel.’
DECEMBER 2012 PAGE 7
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