Faulty track pictured before crash

12 April 2012

A Network Rail (NR) inspection train took pictures of the faulty track in the Cumbria derailment two days before the crash but the images were not looked at until after the disaster, it has been revealed.

The train - known as a new measurement train - passed at high speed over the Grayrigg area of track on the West Coast Main Line on February 21.

NR said on Wednesday that the train's primary function is to spot defects in the metal of the rail and that slowing the video film recording right down to look for other problems is only done if there is an incident.

An 84-year-old woman died and 22 people were taken to hospital when the Virgin Rail Pendolino train derailed on Friday evening.

Earlier this week, an interim report from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) concluded that the immediate cause of the accident was a faulty set of points.

In its interim report, the RAIB said there was evidence that the NR's scheduled visual inspection of the track on February 18 did not take place. The RAIB said it would be further investigating all NR's tests and inspections for the crash area.

Rail regulators had drawn attention to the reliability of points on the network some months before last week's Cumbria derailment.

The number of points failures increased in the months before the Cumbria disaster, the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) also said, as its Railway Inspectorate chief Linda Williams described the fatal incident as "a tragedy that should not have happened".

NR is currently underspending on its 2006-07 budget, the ORR reported. And it added that improvement in NR's infrastructure assets - such as track and signalling - had "stalled".

Ms Williams said following the Cumbria derailment and in addition to the police and Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) investigations into the crash, the ORR was looking to see if there had been any breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

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