Railway safety and crime

NR slapped with £730,000 fine for Gloucester freight derailment

16 March 2018Network Rail has been ordered to pay £733,000 fines after a court found that its failure to adequately maintain track had caused a freight train to derail near Gloucester station. The incident, which occurred in October 2013, saw the train...

RAIB to investigate after train stranded in sub-zero conditions

15 March 2018The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has announced its intention to investigate incidents earlier this month which saw trains stranded in freezing conditions in London. One such incident occurred on 2 March when a Southeastern train was...

RAIB to investigate Cambrian line ERTMS failure

22 February 2018The RAIB has launched an investigation into the loss of speed restriction data to trains during an incident on 20 October on the Cambrian coast line. A driver travelling on the line in North Wales reported that longstanding temporary speed restr...

RAIB to look into accident which saw an elderly woman dragged into tunnel after being trapped by train door

21 February 2018The RAIB has launched an investigation into an incident that saw a 78-year-old passenger dragged into a tunnel on the London Underground after her bag became trapped between the doors of a train, leaving her “seriously injured.” The e...

RAIB: Runaway trailer separated from train due to deliberately disabled brakes

19 February 2018The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has released its report into a runaway trailer in Hope, Derbyshire. The incident occurred on Sunday 28 May 2017 when a trailer, which was being propelled by a small rail tractor, became detached betwe...

Union hits out at controversial plans to merge BTP into Police Scotland

09 February 2018Officials from the TSSA union have today lashed out at the Scottish Government for the continuation of plans that would see transport policing transferred into the hands of regular police forces. Ministers have pursued the move for some time, cla...

Rochdale fire: Northern cancels services as 100 firefighters attend trackside blaze

08 February 2018A huge fire at a trackside industrial unit in Greater Manchester has caused mass delays on Northern Rail’s Leeds to Manchester services. Around 100 firefighters and 12 pumps were called to the scene in the early hours of this morning but th...

Track boundary confusion between NR and LU caused Wimbledon derailment

07 February 2018Confusion over which body should be responsible for a section of track near Wimbledon station contributed to a derailment in November last year which forced 300 people to be evacuated. Investigators from the RAIB said the problem came because a 2...

RAIB to investigate Scottish train which derailed following major landslip

07 February 2018The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has launched an investigation into a train derailment that occurred last month. The incident happened at 06:47am on Monday 22 January 2018, when a passenger train traveling between Mallaig and Glasgow...

Child faced with ‘life-threatening’ danger after nearly falling through toilet floor

31 January 2018An incident in June 2017 which saw a child nearly fall through the missing floor of a train toilet could have been life-threatening, says the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB). The accident occurred on a South Devon Railway (SDR) train wh...

Making the railway safer with big data

30 January 2018Peter Hughes, principal research fellow at the Institute for Railway Research, argues big data is revolutionising close call reporting on our railways. Close call reporting systems are an important part of the GB railways safety management proces...

Croydon tram crash driver likely lost awareness due to a ‘microsleep’

07 December 2017The driver of a tram which derailed in Croydon last year had a “temporary loss of awareness” probably caused by a “microsleep.” The crash caused the death of seven people, while 61 others were injured in the incident which...

Passenger fatalities increase for second year running

04 December 2017The number of rail passenger fatalities has increased for the second year in a row, according to a report published this week.  The ORR’s annual Rail Statistics Compendium, has revealed that 2016-17 saw the deaths of 15 rail passengers...

NR at fault for ‘potentially disastrous’ Liverpool Lime Street wall collapse

30 November 2017Investigators have found that Network Rail was partially at fault for a wall that collapsed onto open railway lines earlier this year. Services at Liverpool Lime Street ground to a halt earlier this year when the wall collapsed over all four line...

Southeastern fined £2.5m after cleaner is electrocuted on live rail

20 November 2017Southeastern Trains along with a company contracted to clean its trains have been fined following the death of a cleaner three years ago. The prosecution, which was brought about by the Office of Rail and Road, has resulted in a £2.5m fine...