West Coast Mainline disruption ongoing after Cumbria train derails

Train passengers are facing major disruption for a second day after a Glasgow to London train derailed, apparently hit by a landslide.

04:28 Avanti West Coast shuttle Derailed on West Coast main line at Shap We arrived in Cumbria on Monday morning after traveling at 80mph.

The North West Ambulance Service confirmed that four of the 87 people on board, including staff, suffered minor injuries but no one required further hospital treatment.

Network Rail said the train had been removed and overhead lines repaired, adding that it was confident the outage on the line north of Preston and south of Carlisle would be fixed by Wednesday morning.

It was stated that the teams “worked 24 hours a day in difficult conditions” to get the railway operational again.

Darren Miller, North West’s infrastructure director, said: “We are confident we will be offering a service to passengers first thing tomorrow morning but our advice is to check before you travel.

“The train was rescued so the area was cleared, overhead lines were reinstated and we dug up most of the debris in our path.

“We still have some work to do on the track… but we are on the road to recovery and, given the weather conditions we experienced overnight, we are pleased with the progress.”

Avanti West Coast is warning customers not to travel further north than Preston and said tickets are available from Wednesday to Friday.

The derailment also affected TransPennine Express services using the West Coast Main Line.

Buses will operate instead of trains on TransPennine Express and Avanti West Coast services between Preston and Carlisle. Tickets will also be accepted on alternative routes of some other train operators.

Network Rail, which maintains the rail, said the exact cause of the 11 wagons derailing was still being investigated.

Operations director Sam MacDougall said initial indications were that the train had hit a landslide.

He said: “We believe the train was traveling at approximately 129km/h at the point of impact and then came to a halt very quickly.”

Mr Miller said there were cameras monitoring possible landslides but it was difficult to tell how the situation occurred.

Avanti West Coast services between Glasgow Central and Birmingham New Street, Crewe, Wolverhampton, London Euston, as well as between Edinburgh and London Euston, have been disrupted due to the line closure.

Caledonian Sleeper trains were affected; Services between Glasgow, Edinburgh and London have been cancelled; Services between Aberdeen, Fort William, Inverness and London were diverted.

TransPennine Express services between Edinburgh, Glasgow Central and Manchester Airport, as well as between Glasgow Central and Liverpool Lime Street, have been disrupted.

Network Rail said the following changes will apply to Avanti West Coast and TransPennine Express services:

• Avanti West Coast services normally running from Edinburgh, Glasgow Central to London Euston have been canceled and a shuttle service is operating from Glasgow Central to Carlisle
• Avanti West Coast services, which normally run from London Euston to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh, will only operate between London Euston and Preston
• TransPennine Express services, which normally run between Glasgow Central and Liverpool Lime Street, will only operate between Preston and Liverpool Lime Street
• TransPennine Express services, which normally run between Edinburgh, Glasgow Central and Manchester Airport, will only operate between Preston and Manchester Airport.

Find more tickets and travel advice at: Network Rail website.

Immediately after the derailment, passengers were taken to the nearby Shap Wells Hotel.

They were then transferred to two coaches, one going to London and the other to Scotland.

The train operator added that all passengers were escorted and taken to their onward destinations as of 10:40 GMT on Monday.

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, said it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened in his constituency.

There was last year Delays following heavy rain caused a landslide on the same track.

He told BBC Radio Cumbria he would “not ignore” and that the incident should be a “huge wake-up call” to the government and Network Rail “to stop servicing lines north of Warrington and via Cumbria to Scotland on the cheap”.

“We’ve had too many of these recently, two derailments in 18 months in my own constituency… I’m sure I’ll be very concerned for our communities and indeed for everyone else as a rail user,” he said.

He said he would raise the issue in the House of Commons with the transport minister and discuss the long-term infrastructure of the West Coast Main Line.

Network Rail said it was using track sensors, CCTV and a system to help detect movement when ground conditions change to improve the resilience of the West Coast Main Line.

It said £30 million would be invested in earthworks in Lancashire and Cumbria over the next four years to “stabilise embankments, roadbeds and cuttings”, and a £323 million modernization program to future-proof the route.

The Department for Transport said it had allocated £44bn to Network Rail to manage railways in England and Wales.

Additional reporting by PA Media.