Paddington Rail crash survivor David Taylor has described Lord Cullen's report into the tragedy as paying "lip service" to Government demands for an inquiry.

Mr Taylor, 35, a computer expert, who lives with his wife Dianne and two-year-old son Gage in Didcot, said the Cullen inquiry had been very thorough, but added that some of the safety recommendations should already have been carried out.

"It has taken the inquiry until now to say what some survivors were saying in the days after the crash," he said.

"It's lip service to Government demands, carries little real weight and is intended to pacify the public."

Transport Secretary Stephen Byers has been asked to liaise with health and safety bosses to ensure that the report's recommendations are carried out.

Mr Taylor, of Abingdon Road, became a spokesman for local survivors and the families of victims after the crash on October 5, 1999, and has monitored rail safety developments ever since.

He added: "My concern is that each company will take the piece of the report which is relevant to them without looking at the overall picture.

"I would like to think that Lord Cullen's recommendations will be legally enforceable, but I am not sure that is the case.

"There is still a great deal that needs to be done to improve in-carriage safety on trains. There is no point having a fire extinguisher on the wrong side of a sliding door that can't be opened."

Lord Cullen's report said yesterday that the crash, in which civil servant Anthony Beeton, also from Didcot, was one of 31 people who died, highlighted "serious and persistent" management failures by Railtrack.

Thames Trains, whose driver went through a red light and caused the crash, had a "slack and less than adequate" attitude to driver training, said the report.

And management at the Slough control centre had a "dangerously complacent attitude" to the problem of train drivers missing red signals.