One man died, and 15 were injured, when two trains crashed into each other on the Cambrian Line, near Talerddig, Powys, Wales on Monday 21st October.
The BBC has been told the 18:31 westbound service from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth continued for about 1,000 metres (3,280ft) beyond where it should have stopped, before hitting a stationary 19:09 train from Machynlleth to Shrewsbury on Monday evening.
The RAIB said an initial inspection found that the train may have entered into wheel slide when braking.
It added that initial evidence suggested that the collision occurred at a speed of approximately 24 km/h (15 mph).
“Passenger dies and 15 hurt after two trains crash” – BBC News, 22nd October 2024
It’s never nice when someone loses their life, and my sympathies go out to this man’s family, as well as to those who were injured. We can be thankful that the collision happened at such a relatively low speed, otherwise it could have been much worse.
There is going to be a full investigation of course, to determine what happened. However I see interestingly that this will be a ‘complex investigation’ that will take several months to complete.
Network Rail’s route director, Nick Millington, says the investigation is going to be “complex”.
TfW chief operating officer Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde says a full report would take several months to be processed.
Mr Dennis says it is imperative the public were given clear answers.
“To reassure the public the industry needs to be honest, not hide behind ‘well the regulator said this, the regulator said that’ and be honest with the public about how this has happened,” he says.
He says after the RAIB gives its final report the industry should “respond constructively and in a way that shows some contrition that something has gone wrong”.
“Because something has gone wrong here,” he says.
“For there to be two trains crashing into one another and resulting people being injured and worse, something has gone wrong.”
“On board the 18:31 to Aberystwyth as it smashed into another train” – BBC News, 25th October 2024
Yes, indeed, “something has gone wrong” is stating the bleeding obvious!
Lately, it seems to me that whenever the word “complex” is used in some kind of official statement or press release, it is some kind of ‘code word’ to indicate that something will be covered up, or there will be some kind of delay or prolongment, especially when it comes to spending taxpayers money. Or simply it is used to stop people asking too many questions, because something that is ‘complex’ is beyond the comprehension of most ordinary people, who are assumed to be ‘too stupid to understand’.
“It’s very complex, no need for us to explain, just let us get on with it”
I’m very familiar with the Cambrian line, having travelled along it on numerous excursions to the west coast of Wales in recent years. It runs from Shrewsbury to Machynlleth, before it splits southbound to Aberystwyth and northbound to Pwllheli. It is mainly a single track line, but there are strategically placed ‘passing loops’, or double track sections, where trains travelling in opposite directions can pass each other safely.
I know this passing loop near Talerddig, as there have been a couple of occasions before where the train I was travelling on has had to wait there for several minutes because the train coming in the opposite direction was running late!
Since the BBC updated the first article I quoted and linked to, I’m actually a bit more bemused about what happened.
Initially I was led to believe that it was the eastbound train from Machynlleth that had ‘overrun’ past the passing loop, which resulted in the westbound train colliding into it on the single track line.
Now the BBC article is saying that it was the westbound train that had the braking problem, stopped ‘further than it should have’ and hit the eastbound train that was stationary at the time.
Based on my own experiences of travelling by train along this line, this still doesn’t make sense to me. If the train from Machynlleth was ‘stationary’, then that suggests to me it was waiting in the correct place on the passing loop, so the train from Shrewsbury shouldn’t have had any opportunity to hit it head on.
The photos from the scene clearly show the two trains collided on a single track line, so clearly one or both trains were in the “wrong place at the wrong time”.
Maybe this will require a ‘complex’ investigation after all. Or maybe something happened that requires a ‘cover-up’. At this point in time, only the drivers of both trains know exactly what happened.
As for “leaves on the line”, it sounds like a tired old excuse, but it is indeed a real problem for trains. We may have modern diesel and electric powered trains nowadays, but look underneath them, and we still have Victorian technology and infrastructure that they run on.
I find it incredible that even here in the 21st century, no-one has come up with any kind of technological solution to solve this annual problem of ‘leaves on the line’ meaning trains have to run at reduced speeds during the Autumn.
Is there no way of applying some kind of friction material to these solid train wheels to give them more ‘grip’ on the rails? Or has no-one thought of engineering some kind of device that sits in front of the train wheels to ‘brush’ the tracks to displace wet leaves from the rails?
Modern problems requiring modern solutions. But no doubt the proposed solution would be ‘cut down all the trees’, because if there are no trees in the vicinity of rail tracks, then leaves can’t fall on them.
Will this put me off from travelling to Wales in the future? Not really, as the BBC point out in their articles, one thing we can be thankful for is that major accidents on our railways are very far and few between, and it is still a very safe way of travelling.
