19世纪是英国铁路发展的黄金时期，但随着铁路事业的蓬勃发展，铁路安全问题也日益凸显。由于当时英国铁路完全由私人公司投资建设和运营，缺乏统一的规划和管理，而且，在19世纪的大部分时间里，国家并未采取强制监管措施。本文就以19世纪英国的铁路安全问题为研究对象，主要分三个章节展开论述，以期能够对我国相关领域的研究有所丰富。第一章主要介绍英国铁路安全问题的产生。在19世纪30、40年代英国掀起铁路建设热潮的背景下，加之当时政府的自由放任态度，导致了严重的安全隐患。第二章对英国政府的监管和规范措施加以梳理，并分析其成效。英国早期的政策战略是利用公共舆论来监督安全事务，同时设立监察员为社会舆论提供信息。但直至19世纪80年代末，由于很多铁路仍未安装最基本的安全装置，至此英国政府不得不承认这一政策无效。1889年，由于北爱尔兰的一场铁路大灾难，议会要求在铁路上安装信号系统和在列车上安装制动器，这标志着政府政策范式的转变。虽然英国对待安全问题的态度有了明显的改变，但是议会对于扩充行政机构权力依然持谨慎态度。第三章分析铁路安全问题迟迟得不到解决的原因，这主要包括两个方面：首先是英国悠久的政治经济文化传统的影响。英国政府长期以来从不对经济进行过多干预，具体到铁路安全问题也是如此，政府认为铁路公司的利益与公众利益之间是一致的。公共舆论能促使铁路公司追求利国利民的战略，是因为铁路公司如果不这样做，它们自己的利益就无法实现。另一方面涉及到铁路公司与运河及收费公路运营商间的利益博弈，安全则成为了二者竞争中的牺牲品。同时，铁路公司之间的盲目竞争，也造成了安全隐患。另外，英国交通设计、建造和管理方面的专家主要集中在私人部门，而并不是国家，这也是造成政府管理有限的一个客观原因。总之，英国政府对铁路安全问题，如果维持不干涉，那么作为弱势群体的乘客，他们的生命和财产安全就得不到保障；但如果干涉，则铁路公司又会认为其自由经营权受到了侵犯，政府这样的干预是一种暴政。所以，19世纪大部分时间，英国政府都处在这样一种纠结的两难之境中。直到19世纪末，政府的铁路安全政策终于完全由自由放任转变为积极干预。

The 19th century was the golden era of British railway development, but with the vigorous development of the railway undertakings, railway security issues had become increasingly prominent. Because construction and operation of British Rail was fully invested by private companies，lack of unified planning and management. Moreover, most of the time of the 19th century, the state had not taken the mandatory regulatory measures. In this paper, the object of study is the 19th century British railway safety issues. This article is mainly divided into three chapters on the main point. And I hope to enrich related fields of research with this article.The first chapter introduces the generation of British railway safety issues. In British, a railway construction boom was been set off in the 1930s and 1940s, and British government held a laissez-faire attitude with this. This situation led to a serious security risk.The second chapter combing the UK government supervision and regulation measures, and analyze its effectiveness. The early 19th century, the British policy strategy was using public opinion to oversee security affairs, at the same time, created observers to provide information for the public opinion. But in the late 1880s this strategy was considered invalid, because even basic safety device was not installed in many railways at that time. In 1889, due to a railway disaster in Northern Ireland, Parliamentary required to install signaling system in railways, and to install brake on the train, this policy showed the British government's policy paradigm changed. Although a marked change in British policy stance towards security, Parliament still cautious about the expansion of the powers of the administrative bodies. The third chapter analyzes why the British government was reluctant to force the standardization of rail safety issues. The main reasons include two aspects: First is the impact of UK's long cultural tradition of political and economic. The British Government has never interfered too much in the economy, Specific to railway safety issues is also true, and the Government believes that the railway company's interests and public interests are consistent. Public opinion can promote the railway company to pursue the strategy of the benefits the country, because if not, railway companies will not be able to achieve their own interests. On the other hand, the reason also involves the interests of the game between the railway companies and canals and toll road operators, security has become the victim in their competition. In the meantime, blind competition between railway companies also resulted in safety hazards. In addition, experts in the design, construction and management of the British transport are mainly concentrated in the private sector, but not in the government .This is an objective reason for limited government management.In short, if the British government to maintain non-interference in railway safety issues, so as the vulnerable groups of passengers, their life and property safety can not be guaranteed. If the government interferes, the railway companies would consider their free operating rights have been violated, and would thought the government’s intervention is a tyranny. So, in the most of the time of the 19th century, the British government are in such a tangled dilemma. Until the end of the 19th century, the British government’s railway safety policy is finally completely into active intervention from the laissez-faire.