On This Day: 5 October 1999

At least eight people are confirmed dead and 160 injured after two trains collided near Paddington Station in west London at the height of the morning rush hour.

Thirty-nine people are seriously injured, with three critically ill and 11 in intensive care.

There are thought to be some 200 with minor injuries.

Many more passengers could still be trapped in the wreckage, said Chief Inspector Brian Gosden of British Transport Police.

Hospitals across the capital are taking in casualties. St Mary’s Hospital has cancelled all out-patient appointments to treat most of the wounded.

The walking wounded are being treated at a local school and Sainsbury’s supermarket.

A Thames Trains 0806 BST from Paddington to Bedwyn in Wiltshire collided with the incoming 0603 BST Great Western 125 express train from Cheltenham at 0811 BST.

Carriages came off the track and one train burst into flames. A massive column of smoke could be seen across west London.

Up to 30 ambulances, 12 fire engines and 70 firefighters rushed to the scene.

Mark Rogers, a passenger on the 0806, said: “There was an almighty crash and the train rolled over and over, first onto its roof and then onto its side.

“One woman I saw thrown out of the window and she was trapped beneath the train. She was at least very severely injured.

“It is absolute pandemonium. ”

Mr Rogers said the carriage behind the driver had been “ripped apart like a sardine can” and was lying over the top of the 125 Great Western train.

“It is chaos. There are doors and broken glass lying everywhere.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “I am absolutely appalled by what is a truly dreadful tragedy.”

Transport Secretary John Prescott has promised a public inquiry into the crash and praised the “swift efforts of all the emergency services”.

Conservative Transport spokesman John Redwood said: “We need a proper inquiry and we need some answers for the future.”

The trains collided on the same stretch of line as the Southall rail crash in 1997, in which seven people died and 150 were injured.

Health and Safety Executive inspectors are at the scene.

 

What’s Happened Since The Crash Occurred

Investigations revealed how 31 people died and dozens were injured because of a head-on collision when one of the trains passed a red signal.

Public inquiries were headed by Scottish judge Lord Cullen. He made dozens of safety recommendations and concluded Railtrack, the company then in charge of rail infrastructure and its investment, had failed to respond to earlier warnings about signalling problems.

He also criticised the Health and Safety Executive’s Rail Inspectorate and recommended an independent Rail Industry Safety Body.

Another inquiry comparing the Ladbroke Grove disaster with the 1997 Southall crash recommended implementing sophisticated safety technology.

Thames Trains was fined a record £2m in April 2004 for breaking health and safety laws. The court was told the train driver had not been warned about problems with the signal at Ladbroke Grove and had not received adequate training.

In December 2004 the Paddington Survivors’ Group complained that many of the safety recommendations made after the crash in 1999 had still not been implemented.

A year later, in December 2005, the Crown Prosecution Service said no individuals would face criminal charges over the crash as there was “insufficient evidence” to provide a realistic prospect of conviction”.

In October 2006, Network Rail admitted health and safety breaches concerning the siting of the signal. It received a record fine of £4 million for its part in the crash on 30 March 2007.

Vision for the future of railways

Better services, improved passenger information, and cuts in the cost of running the railways have been outlined in future plans announced by rail chiefs.

Described as an initial industry plan, the programme covers the period 2014 to 2019, with the industry aiming to cut rail costs by £1.3 billion a year by the end of this decade.

Plans include £5.6 billion-worth of schemes, including the Northern Hub – a £560 million plan to deliver more than 700 extra services a day between Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sheffield.

The rail chiefs’ vision also includes journey time improvements in the East Midlands, Yorkshire, Bristol and Oxford areas and electrification of the Midland main line, the north trans-Pennine line, and further electrification schemes in Scotland.

The plan also envisages improvements to a number of stations including Fenchurch Street in London and Liverpool Central, as well as a £200 million scheme to improve services between Inverness and Aberdeen in Scotland.

By better linking Britain’s major cities, an extra 180,000 peak-time seats could be provided, as well as accommodating a 30% increase in freight.

Rail chiefs also announced plans to move from 800 signal boxes to 14 modern signalling centres. The hoped-for schemes, which will need Government approval, are in addition to £4.9 billion-worth of ongoing projects such as the Thameslink and Crossrail schemes in London and already-announced electrification schemes such as the Great Western line.

The rail industry also spoke of trying to improve the passenger experience in key areas such as journey information, comfort and accessibility.

Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said: “Rail has a bright future in supporting a successful green economy in the years ahead. This plan shows how we can do that by providing a better quality of service to growing numbers of passengers at a more affordable cost.

“We look forward to working with government to ensure the right framework is in place to make this possible.”

Railway Photography – Acton Main Line

My latest trip took me to the West of London to a little station called Acton Main Line.  The station is located on the Great Western Mainline and is the first station out of London Paddington.  Train services are provided by First Great Western who operate a 30 minute service between London Paddington & Greenford, this is the only service that stops at the station and does not run on Sundays.

Passenger services passing the station are operated by First Great Western, Heathrow Connect and Heathrow Express.  Freight services are operated by EWS (DB Schenker), Freightliner, GB Railfreight & Hanson.

Acton Mainline is also host to a freight yard operated by EWS (DB Schenker) which is used by a large volume of stone trains serving the nearby terminal.  There is also a freight avoiding line that passes between platform 4 and the yard which is used by freight trains accessing/exiting the North London Line.

Stock Seen at Acton Main Line

Locomotives: Class 43 HST, Class 59 Diesel, Class 66 Diesel
Multiple Units: Class 165 DMU, Class 166 DMU, Class 180 DMU, Class 332 EMU, Class 360 EMU

Photographs

As usual, here is a little taster of the images I captured.  The full gallery of images can be found on my Photobucket site here.

First Great Western Class 43 HST 43037 passing Acton Mainline Station

DB Schenker Liveried Class 66 Diesel Locomotive 66152 at Acton MainLine Yard