Railway safety and crime

Emergency track work in Bristol cancelled due to chemical emergency risk

29.10.18: Emergency track work, part of rail upgrades across Bristol, has been abruptly cancelled after a local resident told Network Rail that it’s plans put hundreds of people at risk in the case of a chemical emergency. Network Rail were pla...

Train’s near miss with track workers caused by mix-up over location

23.10.18: Two track workers working on a bridge near Dundee were almost hit by a train because the wrong section of the track was blocked off, an investigation by the RAIB has found. Their report said that the workers were on the bridge when the 22:4...

Passengers could have been killed walking alongside live electric track in stranded London Overground train evacuation, RAIB says

10.10.18: Passengers on a London Overground train could have died when evacuated and asked to walk alongside live rail lines, the rail accident investigator has found. On 7 November 2017, around 80 people, including children, had to walk 30m on an ov...

DB Cargo found guilty after electrocuted boy suffers life-changing injuries

05.10.18: DB Cargo UK has been convicted after a 13-year-old boy suffered life-changing injuries due to an electric shock from 25,000-volt OLE at the Tyne Yard in Gateshead, where a disused signal box – known locally as the ‘haunted house&rsqu...

RAIB launches probe into Jubilee Line incident of 11 wide-open doors on moving train

27.09.18: A freak incident on the Jubilee Line which saw 11 passenger doors remaining open whilst the train was moving was caused by a failure in the vehicle’s computerised control system, the RAIB has found. A formal probe has now been launche...

Innovation through people and technology

18.09.18: Ian Prosser, HM chief inspector of railways and director of railway safety at the ORR, picks out the key industry challenges to focus on based on the regulator’s most recent annual health and safety report. In the ORR’s most rec...

Firefighters called to station as control room batteries release hazardous fumes

17.09.18: Firefighters from Essex County Fire and Rescue Service attended an indecent yesterday at Colchester station after reports of hazardous fumes had caused someone to fall ill. The local fire service said: “On arrival firefighters reporte...

Sandilands: Lessons for the mainline

11.09.18: The tragic Croydon crash of 2016 provided many lessons for the UK tramways. But the mainline railway would be wrong to assume many of these lessons don’t apply to them too, says Simon French, chief inspector of rail accidents at the RAIB. ...

RAIB releases report after passenger trapped in door and dragged by Metrolink tram

10.09.18: A passenger was dragged along by a Metrolink tram after the safety system failed to register that his hand was trapped in the door, a rail accident report has found. Metrolink said this was an unintentional error, and the Rail Accident Inve...

Greater Anglia employs extra Land Sheriffs to improve safety and security for passengers

07.09.18: TOC Greater Anglia is employing additional Land Sheriffs to improve safety and security of passengers on their trains. The Land Sheriffs will patrol trains and stations, dealing with anti-social behaviour and enforcing railway bylaws, aimin...

TOCs urged to conduct proper safety checks after trapped passenger is dragged by train

30.08.18: An incident that saw a passenger dragged along by a train after getting trapped in the closing doors was caused by operational issues and a misunderstanding of safety instructions, the RAIB has found. On 26 March this year, a woman was drag...

Three people killed in separate incidents on British tracks

30.08.18: Two people have died in separate incidents after being struck by trains on the railways yesterday. The first incident occurred at 10:28am when officers were called to Kenilworth Station following reports that a person had been struck by a t...

Nexus lacked ‘effective safe system of work’ during near-miss on Metro line

29.08.18: Procedures from passenger transport executive Nexus “did not assist with the creation of an effective safe system of work,” the RAIB has said in an investigation released after two track workers narrowly avoided being struck by a Tyn...

Plough about that! Severe disruption in Yorkshire as tractor crashes onto train tracks

16.08.18: Passengers travelling between Leeds and Doncaster, Sheffield, and London were advised to check before they set off this morning after a tractor damaged railway tracks and overhead equipment near Wakefield. The vehicle towing a trailer damag...

Staff scramble to safety from 125mph train in near-miss due to ‘unsafe and unofficial’ working practices

16.08.18: A group of track workers narrowly escaped a devastating incident after just moving clear of a 125mph train on the East Coast Main Line (ECML). The incident occurred on the morning of 5 October last year at Egmanton level crossing, between N...