Train derailment

London-Sheffield train derailed at 110 mph!

One of our volunteer reporters was on board the 14.55 from St Pancras on 20th February when it derailed 20 miles south of Leicester. Passengers in the crowded train held their breath as the train ground to a halt among the snow-covered fields of Leicestershire. The silence was broken by an announcement over the PA system: “Ladies and gentleman, we appear to have a slight problem – we’re trying to find out what it is.” This first announcement turned out to be something of an understatement!

The train had been speeding along quite smoothly until we were 50 minutes out of St Pancras when, without any warning, it started shaking, with loud bangs coming from underneath the carriage. It felt as though the train was running over debris or piles of rocks. The on-train staff took charge of the situation very professionally and kept us informed of developments. They said that a diesel tank had been ruptured in the incident and was leaking fuel onto the tracks, causing a possible fire hazard, but fortunately this didn’t materialise.

It was a busy service with over 300 passengers on board, many of them families returning from the half-term break. The staff team provided the children with activities, snacks, drinks and sweets and everyone remained very calm, despite the uncertainty of what was going to happen next. The first plan was to stop a south-bound train and take us back to Market Harborough, but this idea was abandoned because it was a shorter train with insufficient seating (and we didn’t particularly want to go to Market Harborough anyway!).

Eventually a replacement train from Derby arrived after three hours and the process of carrying out the emergency evacuation took a further hour, with the help of the Fire Brigade (who had to walk across a snow-covered field to reach the track) and Transport Police. This involved everyone climbing down a ladder onto the track, then walking a short distance to the replacement train on the other track before climbing onto that up a second ladder, a lengthy process with the large number of passengers involved. Everyone was given the assistance they needed to ensure the transfer was carried out safely.

I eventually arrived into Sheffield station at 10 pm, five hours later than scheduled, but thankful to have reached home safely. Instead of a journey time of 2 hours 7 minutes it was actually 7 hours 2 minutes!

A subsequent letter from the East Midlands Trains Customer Service Director, Jake Kelly, gave more details about the cause of the derailment. He said:

“During the incident, two of the 56 wheels on the train became derailed; these wheels were on a carriage in the centre of the train. As a safety precaution checks have now been carried out on the rest of the Meridian fleet and no other train has been identified as having a similar fault. By way of a tangible token of apology each passenger is being offered a recompense of £200 in acknowledgement of the distress and inconvenience caused by this incident.”

I thought that was a generous offer I couldn’t refuse! I wrote back to him to say that I hoped the on-train staff would also be given a tangible recognition for the excellent, professional way they handled the emergency, which went well beyond the call of duty – if anyone deserved a bonus, they certainly did!

Story John Mellor