During the life of the railway: no passenger met with an accident; in December 1869 two men were killed when a freight train was derailed; in 1868 an employee was thrown from a train and killed. In September 1870, Fell reported to the British Association that: trains had travelled 200,000 miles and carried 100,000 passengers; the Indian Mail had never missed a connection and had taken 30 hours less than before; the journey time from Paris to Turin had been cut by one night. The MCR had proved the value of Fell's new system.
