TRAIN drivers are putting their passengers lives at risk by running red light regularly.

It was reported in The Age last week that train drivers on metropolitan lines run red lights at least once every two days.

Data collected by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau suggests a significant increase in such incidents since the late 1990s. Figures for the 70 months to May 2002 show there was an average of just 1.5 red signal breaches a month on the part of the network operated by Connex after privatisation in 1999. In the part of the network initially operated by National Express, there was an average of 2.2 red light breaches a month in the 77 months to May 2001.

Surely there must be a review of this by the state government with the last apparent incident happening in July on the Frankston line, narrowly missing another train on the Flinders St line.

It was carrying 401 passengers at the time.