Roger Kemp is a Professorial Fellow in the Engineering Department at Lancaster University. His research interests include the safety regulation of the nuclear industry as well as energy use and safety regulation of transport systems.
  • Dreamstime - Fast train: spanish high speed AVE series. © Jarroyo1982 | Dreamstime.com

    The Spanish Train Crash – a deficit in Situational Awareness?

    In the week following the train crash at Santiago de Compostela, the reasons slowly came to light. Minutes after the crash we knew that the train had derailed and the driver was reported to have said it was travelling at around twice the line speed limit. Was this a speed that would have caused derailment?

  • Energy

    Good politics – shame about the energy policy

    Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour Party Conference promising to freeze energy prices may have been good politics, but does it represent a coherent energy policy?

  • Reduced emissions come at a price

    The scandal that has engulfed Volkswagen over the measurement of oxides of nitrogen has been held up as yet another example of large companies pursuing profitability by dubious means at the expense of the rest of the population. But this is an oversimplification.

  • Who decided to put Lancaster’s main electrical substation next to the river?

    Over the first weekend in December, Storm Desmond brought flooding to much of central Lancaster, including the substation. At 10.30 pm on Saturday, all electricity supplies in the city were lost and stayed off until 6 am on Monday. For the next few days different areas suffered further power cuts.