Transport Insights

With rail getting all the funding it needs, the local LibDem MP has used the derailment of a passenger train in Cumbria to highlight the risk of landslips on the rail network as climate change increases the risks.

A high-speed Avanti West Coast train said to be travelling at around 80mph partly derailed after hitting a landslide in Cumbria early this morning.

The operator said all 86 people plus its train crew were evacuated to a nearby hotel and were were assessed by paramedics, with four treated for minor injuries but none requiring hospital treatment.

Former LibDem leader Tim Farron called for an investigation into whether enough resources were being spent on the line.

He told the Guardian:

A landslide here is not an unusual thing to happen. North of here going into Scotland there are regular rail cancellations because of landslips.

It’s a matter of record that the Department for Transport [and] Network Rail chose to defer indefinitely, maybe even cancel, TriLink, the modernisation of the track programme in north-west England down the south of Scotland.

That is a bad decision. Whether this [derailment] is caused by that or not, I don’t know – none of us do yet. But we definitely do know that landslips around Lockerbie, for example, happen quite regularly.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch are being called into action quite a lot – and they’re a great outfit … but they shouldn’t have to do as much work as they are currently doing. Even if [the derailment] has got nothing to do with that, this is a wake-up call.

Sam MacDougall, an operations director for Network Rail, said the infrastructure operator had:

put a significant amount of importance and effort into managing our risks around structures, earthworks and extreme weather. 

Importance and effort are not the same as cash, of course.

According to the Guardian, MacDougall praised the “superb job” that the driver did in bringing the train to a safe stop and initiating an emergency call.

The problem for Network Rail is that its lines are at risk not just from landslips caused by heavy rain but from dry weather causing ground to shrink, as has happened on the Exeter line.