How can willingness-to-pay-based values of safety for public transport
modes, such as London's Underground railway system, be expected to re
late to the corresponding value for road safety? This article reports
results which suggest that such values should be set al a substantial
premium in relation to their roads counterpart. However, this premium
appears to derive entirely from considerations of control, voluntarine
ss, and responsibility, and, contrary to popular wisdom, apparently ow
es nothing whatsoever to the possibility of large-scale ''catastrophic
'' accidents on modes such as the Underground.