More than a week has passed since nine people died in the train fire on the Sofia-Kardam line, and rather than sensible action, all we have seen in the aftermath has been attempts to score political points.
There are deeper and more serious issues to deal with rather than knee-jerk calls for resignations, however much it may be justified that some top officials should lose their jobs, or maudlin attempts to exploit the mourning for the victims.
It has been well-known for a long time that all is not well with Bulgarian State Railways, BDZ. It is no great surprise that it runs at a loss, given that many state-owned public transport services do, and it may be accepted that some kind of financial loss is acceptable for the sake of providing affordable and safe transport. The only question in this regard is whether the railway system is being managed adequately so as to minimise the financial losses.
It has been equally well-known for a long time that BDZ’s rolling stock is ageing, its infrastructure not properly maintained, and the time taken to fulfil promises, such as those of several summers ago to introduce high-speed services from the capital to the coast, is evidence of poor management.
The tragedy of the Sofia-Kardam line is evidence that incompetent management crossed the line from simple inconveniences and inefficiencies to the point where lives were lost.
Media reports in the days after the deaths said that only three out of BDZ’s 13 000 railway carriages were fireproof. Railway authorities had ordered the replacement of fire extinguishers, after it emerged that during the Sofia-Kardam train fire, only one of three extinguishers was serviceable. Unconfirmed reports speak of inadequate reactions on the part of the conductor and other officials.
It is not as if, even for a financially-strapped railway service, there were not lessons that could have been learnt, and a serious attempt made to ensure that lives were not put at risk from an avoidable danger. Back over the years, from the 1969 train fire in Taunton, UK, in which 12 lives were lost in circumstances not dissimilar to what happened in Bulgaria in 2008, through to other train fires in various countries (not forgetting the 1996 Channel Tunnel fire, which exposed inadequacies in safety and emergency procedures), it has become clear that the correct procedures, training and appropriate responses can save lives. For whatever reason, either complacency because of its relatively good safety record or simply inertia on the part of senior management, BDZ allowed matters to slide to a degree that left a nation in mourning.
It is to be hoped that a proper forensic investigation establishes the cause or causes of the fire, and that there is an objective assessment of the responses of the relevant authorities to what happened. Those who allowed matters to deteriorate to the extent that they did must be made to pay with their jobs. Where needed, new procedures, training and equipment must be put in place to deal with fires and other hazards.
None of this, of being wise after the fact, will be of any solace to the families of those who died, but it will at least potentially go some way to bringing about much-needed financial and administrative reforms of a strategic national asset. And if any politician from any party wants to say something on the subject, they should limit themselves to constructive suggestions on how to prevent another tragedy.
