A campaign to improve railway bridge crash barriers by The Northern Echo has resulted in a personal intervention by the Prime Minister.

Tony Blair has promised to resolve the dispute between Railtrack, local authorities and the Highways Agency over who should pay to fix the crumbling crash barriers.

The campaign followed an investigation by the Echo which found that few improvements had been made to the barriers in the region to avoid a repeat of the Selby rail disaster of February 2001, in which 10 people died when a Land Rover careered onto the East Coast Main Line in North Yorkshire.

With fears that if the work was not carried out a similar disaster may occur, some local authorities in the North East have continued improvement work, regardless of who will eventually pay.

But after Mr Blair was questioned by The Northern Echo, a speedy response to the dispute has been promised.

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said Railtrack, the Highways Agency and the Department for Transport were working “to produce a protocol of responsibility for the costs of the work at places where roads and railway lines meet”.

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