A man and a woman have been arrested after a train struck an unoccupied car abandoned on a level crossing in Kent.
The driver and four Network Rail workers on board were unhurt after it hit the car in Ramsgate at 05:00 BST.
Southeastern said the incident had damaged the train and there would be disruptions to mainline and high speed services until the line was cleared.
The pair are being held on suspicion of obstruction and being in charge of a vehicle when unfit through drink/drugs.
The train, which was the 04:50 BST service from Ramsgate to Charing Cross, hit the black Vauxhall Astra on the Cliff’s End level crossing.
Southeastern said specialist equipment was needed to remove the car and repair the train, which was likely to take some time.
The crossing is expected to be closed for most of the day.
A replacement bus service is running between Ramsgate and Canterbury West, and between Ramsgate and Dover Priory. Some rail services are also being diverted via Canterbury.
Routes in and out of London’s Charing Cross station are among those affected.
A British Transport Police (BTP) spokesman said: “There was no-one inside the car at the time of the collision. The train remained upright on the tracks.
“A BTP investigation is under way to establish how the car came to be on the crossing and the full circumstances leading up to the incident.”
At least 85 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in the country’s worst peacetime rail crash.
The accident happened at 0820 GMT at Harrow, a north-west suburb of London.
A London-bound express train from Perth ploughed into the back of the 0731 Tring-Euston commuter train as it was about to leave Harrow and Wealdstone station, on the London Midland region line.
Seconds later, a third train coming from Euston crashed into the wreckage.
Survivors described hearing a deafening sound like an explosion and then broken glass and debris flying everywhere.
John Bannister of Harrow was in the local train in a coach just under the footbridge at the time of the accident. He told The Times newspaper: “It all happened in a second. There was a terrible crash and glass and debris showered on me.”
He added: “I blacked out for a moment and when I came round I found I was lying on the line with debris on top of me. I managed to free myself and drag myself on to the platform.”
Harrow & Wealdstone Station
There were about 1,000 passengers aboard all three trains, with most causalities at the rear end of the Tring commuter train and the front coaches of the two express trains.
Some of the victims were on the platform as carriages full of commuters were hurled onto them. Others were killed on a footbridge over the track that was punctured by a pile of coaches 30-foot (9 metres) high.
Residents help rescuers
Rescue workers are battling to free survivors still trapped in carriages at the bottom of the pile-up.
Firefighters and police have been joined by railway workers and local residents.
The middle section of the footbridge has been cut away to free up the front two coaches of the local train which seem relatively undamaged. Other coaches have been cut through to bring out survivors and the dead.
Police officers occasionally shouted or blew their whistles for silence to listen for any signs of survivors in the wreckage.
The Queen and the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, have sent messages of sympathy to the victims and the bereaved.
From: Safety & Health Practitioner
Network Rail has been fined £80,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £32,000 after a train hit a collapsed public footbridge and came off the rails, injuring the train driver and all the passengers on board.
Leicester Crown Court, sitting on 3 October, heard that on 1 February 2008, a lorry delivering bulk material in darkness at 6am to a Network-Rail construction site near Barrow upon Soar station struck a footbridge over the railway with its upraised tipper, causing the bridge to collapse and block the rail line. A short while later, a train travelling from Nottingham to Norwich at 65 mph crashed into the debris and derailed.
The six passengers on the train suffered shock and minor injuries, while the train driver had to be freed from his cab by emergency services and sustained bruising, cuts and cracked ribs.
An investigation by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) found that Network Rail had failed to properly plan, manage, and supervise deliveries of ballast to its worksite. In this instance, the lorry had been allowed to drive along the site with its tipper body not fully lowered after emptying its load.
Commenting on the case, Allan Spence, ORR’s deputy chief inspector of railways said: “Network Rail’s poor planning and management of the construction site at Barrow upon Soar station placed the public, passengers and railway staff in great danger.
“Given the circumstances, it is very fortunate that no one on the train was seriously injured and that no one was crossing the footbridge when it collapsed.
“It is essential that incidents such as this never happen again. Since the time of this accident, Network Rail has made significant progress, acting on our recommendations to improve safety at its construction sites.”
Network Rail was fined £40,000 on each count for breaching the Health & Safety at Work act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of employees and non-employees. A third charge of breaching the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 by failing to effectively plan, organise and control preventive and protective measures, did not carry a fine. Network Rail had previously pleaded guilty to all three charges at Loughborough Magistrates’ Court.
After the sentencing, a spokesperson for Network Rail said: “Network Rail accepts that it should have done more to have prevented this accident. We did carry out risk assessments at the time, but we did not foresee the possibility of a lorry driver leaving site and failing to lower his tipper for several hundred yards – this is what happened and we should have done more. “We have changed the way we carry out such work since the accident and passengers can be confident it won’t happen again.”
British Rail began its new 125mph High Speed Train (HST) service today. The first London-Bristol service arrived three minutes early.
The Inter-City 125 has been introduced to provide a regular high speed service between Cardiff, Bristol and London.
British Rail will extend the HST service to other major cities over the next two years.
Powered by two diesel motors the Inter-City 125 has recorded a top speed of over 140mph in trial runs, making it the fastest diesel-powered train in the world.
Intercity 125s are still used by First Great Western 35 Years Later
Most other countries have developed electrically powered high-speed trains.
The cost of electrification on Britain’s network was considered prohibitive so the diesel-powered 125 is a new product from existing technology.
In the absence of an official ceremony by British Rail to mark the occasion, few passengers were aware they were making history this morning as the first 0805 left Paddington on time.
New features
But most travellers did appreciate some improvement in comfort. The carriages feature aircraft-like seating, with sliding electric doors at each end.
Hot food is served quickly from an on-board kitchen with the aid of a state-of-the-art microwave oven.
Rail bosses are hopeful the improved service, which has been introduced without a rise in fares, will bring in more business.
Increased fares over the last two years have been linked to a fall in passenger traffic of 15 to 20%.
A Few Interesting Facts about the introduction & history of the Intercity 125
When the service was launched a single adult ticket between Bristol and London cost £5.
The month before the launch the train driver’s union Aslef demanded that trains be manned by two drivers when travelling at speeds in excess of 100mph.
British Rail estimated this would cost them £300,000 in over-manning.
The introduction of the Inter-City 125 made significant reductions in journey times across the UK and led to a marked surge in passenger numbers.
Variations of the 125 were sold to Australian railways.
Intercity 125s are still in operation although the faster, electrically powered Inter-City 225 has emerged as its successor.
In March 2006 the government announced the 125 would be phased out of service – although some companies, like First Great Western, say they are investing millions of pounds to keep them going for at least another decade.
Labour MPs last night called for the Government to hand over control of plans to buy £1 billion worth of trains to another organisation.
Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle made the demand while giving her speech to her party’s annual conference in Liverpool.
She argued that the Government had shown it could not be trusted to ensure British firms – like Derby trainmaker Bombardier – had a fair chance of winning state contracts.
Her comments came a day after Labour gave an award to campaigners from Derby, who are fighting to get the Government to change its decision to hand a £1.4 billion Thameslink contract to German firm Siemens, instead of Bombardier.
After the move was taken, the Litchurch Lane firm announced it would review its UK operations, raising the prospect of 1,400 job losses.
Now the Government is drawing up plans for its next big train order, Crossrail, valued at about £1 billion.
Ms Eagle told conference delegates: “I say to (Transport Secretary) Philip Hammond – there is no faith that your department will give British manufacturing a fair chance. So hand over responsibility for ordering the new Crossrail trains to Transport for London, which – thanks to Labour – has a track record of buying British.”
Ms Eagle pointed out that Prime Minister David Cameron had promised to support business when he took his Cabinet to Derby, shortly before naming Siemens as the preferred bidder for Thameslink.
Ministers have consistently said the way the tender for Thameslink was designed by the previous Labour administration meant they could only have given the contract to Siemens. They claim it would have been breaking EU law to do otherwise.
Ms Eagle called that “a lie” and said the Government could have scrapped the tender process and started again with one that gave the Derby firm a better chance of winning. She urged campaigners to keep fighting to get the Government to change its mind.
Last night ministers were defiant. Mr Hammond warned the consequences of further delaying Thameslink would be too severe for taxpayers to bear and said: “The project is already 16 years behind schedule – in its original iteration it was known as Thameslink 2000. It has already had very large amounts of capital investment sunk into it,” he said.
He argued that 3,000 construction jobs depending on the project moving forward could be put at risk if it was delayed.
On the Crossrail issue, a Government spokesman pointed out that it was Labour that had set up Crossrail Ltd – an arms-length body – to deliver the scheme, overseen by the Government and Transport for London. He said: “Is Labour seriously saying taxpayers in the rest of the country, outside London, should have no control over the billions of pounds they are putting into Crossrail?”
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It really beggars belief what Labour will do these days. Not only did they ‘make TfL buy British’, but they also award the people protesting about a loss of work in Derby, that the party’s own ineptitude in developing the procurement process caused in the first place.
Maria Eagle would of course have backed the Government if they had scrapped the procurement process to give Bombardier a chance. Thus costing millions more pounds of taxpayers money to be wasted.
The above article also once again fails to mention that Bombardier were already considering up to 1200 job losses regardless of the Thameslink deal. In the modern world, and including the findings of the McNulty report, rolling stock procurement MUST give serious value for money and not just be awarded on the basis of where the companies are based. Let us not forget that even Bombardier is not a British company, they are Canadian.
It may be the fall-out from that disastrous ‘wrong type of snow’ announcement a few years ago but rail travellers no longer have the time for excuses about delays or cancellations, according to train customer watchdog Passenger Focus.
Commuters want ‘more honesty and fewer excuses’ as they increasingly rely on radio and TV information rather than the botched ‘real-time’ announcements from the rail companies, the watchdog has said.
The accepted good practice of confirming a delay within two minutes of an unscheduled stop is no longer being delivered, according to a Passenger Focus report.
And it’s not enough for announcements to be humorous, nor for the notices be filled with ‘over-the-top empathy’. What they wanted was ‘genuine’, ‘engaged’, ‘alive’ and ‘caring’ rail announcements.
Passenger Focus chief executive Anthony Smith said travellers understood things sometimes went wrong
‘The railway needs to explain the causes of delay in language people trust, and more needs to be done to warn people of problems, so they have a chance to change their plans and avoid them,’ he said.
A spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies replied: ‘Improving information during disruption is now a priority and we recognise we needs to get consistently better at it.’
Fare dodgers are depriving the rail network and other passengers of an estimated £200m a year, according to figures published by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) which represents Britain’s train operators.
Fare dodgers who choose to travel without buying a ticket are estimated to be making more than 110,000 train journeys each and every day on the rail network.
The figures come as train companies publish a list of some of the more memorable excuses used by passengers caught travelling without a ticket.
Examples of excuses given by fare dodgers for not buying a ticket include:-
“I’m related to The Queen so I don’t need a ticket.”
“I’m in the Zimbabwean SAS, on covert ops.”
“Don’t you know who I am?”
“What’s a ticket?”
“Do I need a ticket? I thought the railway was free.”
“If the ticket man doesn’t see me then I don’t need one.”
“I’m a freeman of the land, I don’t recognise the law and the law does not apply to me.”
An adult travelling with a child ticket said “I thought I was a child until I was 21.”
A passenger claimed he did not buy a ticket because “I didn’t think you would accept my fare.”
“I thought by hiding in the luggage rack you wouldn’t see me.”
The hundreds of millions of pounds lost every year due to fare dodging is money train operators could otherwise invest in improving services for passengers.
It is estimated that the £200m currently lost every year due to fare dodging would be enough to:
– Lease over 1,300 extra commuter carriages, or;
– Lease around 800 extra inter-city carriages for longer distance journeys, or;
– Pay for the upkeep of around 380 stations for the next five years.
Train companies have a number of safeguards in place aimed at ensuring that customers unable to buy a ticket are not given a penalty fare. Staff are regularly updated about ticket machines which may not be working and other circumstances which may prevent people from buying tickets. Passengers should check with their train operator what its policies are on ticketing and fare evasion.
David Mapp, Commercial Director for the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), said:
“It’s frustrating for the vast majority of honest passengers who do pay for their ticket when fare dodgers’ selfish actions suck millions of pounds out of the railways each year. That’s money both train companies and passengers alike would rather see going back into further improving services.
“Train companies deal with fare dodgers in a fair but firm manner. Where there is a genuine reason for someone travelling without a ticket, train companies will always use their discretion. Strong deterrents are in place to ensure that the vast majority of passengers don’t end up paying for the few who think they can get away without buying a ticket.
“As these excuses show, there are always some people who choose to spend time thinking up an excuse rather than buying a ticket.”
Punctuality on the railways reached 92.3% during period five, according to monthly performance data released today by Network Rail. The data for Britain’s train services covers the period from 24 July 2011 – 20 August 2011. This compares to 94.2% for the same period last year. The moving annual
average is now at 90.6%.
Top 4 Performers for this period were: C2c (97.1%), London Overground (96.2%), Merseyrail (95.7%), East Midland Trains (94.4%) Worst 4 Performers for this period were: Southern (88.8%), Virgin Trains (89.1%), East Coast (89.2%), Scotrail (91%)
Southern’s performance was severely affected by the Thames Water burst main and subsequent landslide that shut the Brighton Main Line impacting services on the 1st and 2nd August.
BR Standard Class 7 Steam Locomotive 70000 Britannia working hard through Harringay Green Lanes whilst heading 1Z34 The Cathedrals Express charter from Southend to Salisbury on Wednesday 31/08/2011
A fire on a freight train in Buckinghamshire is causing major disruption on the rail network.
All services have been suspended on the West Coast Mainline following the fire at Castlethorpe, near Milton Keynes, said Network Rail.
Fire crews have been working to put out the blaze on board the train, which was travelling between Crewe Basford Hall and Felixstowe.
Three fire engines were called to the scene at 09:34 BST.
A Network Rail spokesman said it was hoped services would soon begin returning to normal.
Update 12:45 The locomotive believed to be involved is Freightliner Class 90 Electric Locomotive 90044
Update 14:30 From the Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Website
Tuesday 30 August, 9.34am: Fire in traction unit of a freight train, on the West Coast main line, near Shades Bridge, Castlethorpe, Milton Keynes. One appliance and crew from Newport Pagnell (call sign FJC 14P1), two from Great Holm (call signs FJC 11P1 and FJC 11P4), one from Bletchley (call sign FJC 12PW2), the Specialist Equipment Vehicle from Aylesbury (call sign FJC 21S61) and the Operational Support Unit from Broughton (FJC 13S6) attended, along with Station Manager Paul McShane and Station Manager Steve Wells. Firefighters arranged for electricity to be isolated to the line while they used four sets of breathing apparatus, one hose reel and a dry powder extinguisher.
This blog has been designed to allow me to post news & stories from the Railways, both real and model. I also intend to share a few stories from my work as a Revenue Protection Officer along the way.
The opinions expressed on this blog are exclusively mine and in no way, shape or form reflect the opinions of my employer.
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