So this morning, after the derailment of a high-speed express train heading from London to Glasgow, we are getting the inevitable comments from people that they aren’t going to travel by train because it’s unsafe – but is it.

To be honest, the first feelings I had when I saw the pictures, which thanks to the rural area in which the accident occurred didn’t start appearing until first light, were ones of amazement at both how in tact the train was, and also how few serious injuries there were. The train had been travelling at almost 100mph when it left the track – possibly after crossing a set of points, but the enquiry has yet to determine this as the cause. The train then came off the track bed, plunging down the side of the embankment. The momentum of the train means that the front few carriages of the train were spun around, and ultimately leaving only the last few carriages of the train upright. (The BBC has a good annotated picture showing the crash site.) However 90% of the 180 passengers walked away from the scene. Of the twenty or so passengers who needed hospital treatment five were seriously hurt, and one woman died. Comparing the scenes of crumpled carriages often seen after major crashes such as this, all of the carriages of the train from last night are in tact, even those that plunged off the embankment. This is surely a testament to the safety of modern train rolling stock compared to the older stock elsewhere that for example in the Ufton Nervet crash in 2004 crumpled in the impact.

It’s also worth remembering that the reason there is so much attention for this crash is that it is relatively rare – this is the first serious train crash in five years. Although when you see a list of rail crashes since 1950, as the BBC has helpfully published today, the total number killed in that entire period is less than the thousands killed on our roads every year. Just consider what would happen to a car on a motorway if it left the road and went down an embankment at nearly 100mph…

So whilst it is shocking to see pictures of the wreckage of the train, and of course we need a thorough investigation of the cause, we have to remember that rail travel is still probably the safest way to travel in the UK.