Inquiry begins into train crash in northwest England

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) Investigators probed the cause of a high-speed train accident in northwest England which killed an elderly woman and seriously injured five other people.

The state-of-the-art Virgin Pendolino tilting train, heading from London to Glasgow, derailed at 95 mph shortly after 8 p m yesterday in a remote area of Cumbria and a number of carriages slid down an embankment.

Emergency workers had to battle difficult conditions including torrential rain to try and reach around 120 passengers, some of whom were trapped in the overturned carriages.

Police later said one elderly woman had died and 22 people were injured, including five who had been seriously hurt.

Asked about the cause of the crash, Police Superintendent John Rush told a news conference: ''We are unsure how that exactly has happened.'' The leader of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union, Bob Crow, said it was thought a points failure was to blame. ''It's not vandalism and it's certainly not a cow,'' he told Sky News. ''There's been some kind of points failure, what the reason is for that points failure we don't know.'' Rush said the line would be closed for up to six days while investigations were carried out.

''You were suddenly aware of a jolt and the train started swaying really quite dramatically,'' BBC executive Caroline Thomson, a passenger, told BBC News 24 Television. She said the train then flipped over and came to rest on its side.

''The emergency vehicles are coming up and there are a lot of flashing lights. One carriage is lying quite dramatically ... off the line,'' she said from the scene, in farmland near the town of Kendal on the edge of the Lake District.

Royal Air Force Sea king helicopters ferried the injured to hospital. Twelve ambulances and 80 firefighters were rushed to the scene of the crash.

A Virgin spokesman told Sky News: ''This is the first incident involving a Pendolino train and we have to very quickly understand why this has happened.'' But he said there was no question of withdrawing the trains from service.

The Pendolino (Italian for ''tilting'') was developed in Italy by Fiat Ferroviaria, which was bought by French firm Alstom in 2000.

Virgin uses Pendolinos on its mainline routes.

Virgin Trains is 49 per cent-owned by British bus and train operator Stagecoach Group Plc and 51 per cent by Richard Branson's Virgin Group.

REUTERS SSC KN1332