UK: Train crash, nationwide safety checks

Grayrigg, England, Feb 25: Safety checks were carried out on railway tracks across Britain today after a high speed train crash in northern England killed an elderly woman and seriously injured several other passengers.

A Virgin Pendolino tilting train, heading from London to Glasgow, derailed at 150 kph on Friday evening in a remote area of Cumbria, scattering carriages down the side of a steep embankment.

Accident investigators said their inquiry was concentrating on a set of points.

Track operator Network Rail said it had started safety checks on between 600 and 700 sets of points across the country.

''Having a set of points immediately prior to an accident always makes those points very suspect, and given the information we have ... that's the focus of attention,'' John Armitt, Network Rail chief executive, said.

Routine maintenance work had been carried out on the track during the previous week, police said.

Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Group, praised the train's driver who remained in his seat after the train derailed in an attempt to slow it down. Some of the 100 passengers were trapped in the overturned carriages.

Police named the dead woman as 84-year-old Margaret Masson, from Glasgow. Eleven people are still in hospital with back, leg and head injuries, and officers said it was ''little short of a miracle'' more passengers had not died.

''We are amazed that we didn't have fatalities actually at the time. We've been very, very fortunate,'' said Chief Superintendent Martyn Ripley of British Transport Police.

In 2002, seven passengers died in a derailment at Potters Bar, north of London. Two years earlier four people were killed in a derailment at Hatfield near London.

The worst accident in recent years happened in 1999 when two trains collided near the capital's Paddington station, killing 31.

Bob Crowe, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, said the latest accident demonstrated not enough had been done to upgrade Britain's train tracks.

''I don't see nuts and bolts falling off 747 jets... Isn't it about time we had some decent nuts and bolts on the railways?'' he told BBC news.

Rail experts said safety features of the Pendolinos had restricted casualties. The Pendolino (Italian for ''tilting'') was developed in Italy by Fiat Ferroviaria, which was bought by French firm Alstom in 2000.

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

Reuters>