On the morning of 5 October 1999, two passenger trains collided head-on just outside Paddington Station during the rush hour. At 08:11 a.m., a Thames Trains commuter service passed a red signal and crossed into the path of a high-speed Great Western Trains service travelling at up to 125 mph. The impact and resulting fire killed 31 people and injured more than 400, exposing deep failures in signalling safety, training, and the fragmented structure of Britain’s privatised railways. In this episode of Compact Disasters, we examine what went wrong, why known risks were left unresolved, and how the Paddington crash reshaped rail safety across the UK.
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