The
Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash (also known as the
Paddington train crash) was a rail accident which occurred on 5 October 1999 at
Ladbroke GroveLadbroke Grove is a road in West London, and is also the name given to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles the W10 and W11 postal districts. Ladbroke Grove tube station is...
, London, England. Thirty-one people were killed and more than 520 injured.
At 08:08 and 58 seconds
BSTWestern European Summer Time is a summer daylight saving time scheme, 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in the following places:* the Canary Islands* the Faroe Islands* Ireland* the Crown dependencies* the Madeira islands...
a three-car
Class 165The British Rail Class 165 Turbo diesel multiple units were built by BREL at York Works from 1990–1992. These units are suburban trains, with an express version appearing later in the form of the Class 166 Turbo Express trains...
diesel multiple unitA diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
train (no 165 115), operated by
Thames TrainsThames Trains was a British railway company franchised to run regional and suburban trains from London Paddington station to destinations in the home counties west of London, to Worcester, Hereford and Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Reading to Gatwick Airport service.With effect from 1 April 2004, the...
collided with a
First Great WesternFirst Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup, which operates services in the west and south west of England and South Wales....
High Speed TrainThere are three types of trains in Britain that have been traditionally viewed as high speed trains:* Advanced Passenger Train - Tilting trains which never entered into regular revenue-earning service....
(which consisted of eight
Mark 3British Rail's third fundamental design of carriage was designated 'Mark 3' , and was developed primarily for the InterCity 125 High Speed Train...
passenger carriages with a
Class 43The British Rail Class 43 is the TOPS classification used for the InterCity 125 High Speed Train power cars, built by BREL from 1976 to 1982....
power car at each end) (43011 + 43018) at Ladbroke Grove Junction, about two miles (4 km) west of the terminus at London
Paddington stationPaddington station, also known as London Paddington, is a major National Rail and London Underground station complex in the Paddington area of central London, England....
.
The
Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash (also known as the
Paddington train crash) was a rail accident which occurred on 5 October 1999 at
Ladbroke GroveLadbroke Grove is a road in West London, and is also the name given to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles the W10 and W11 postal districts. Ladbroke Grove tube station is...
, London, England. Thirty-one people were killed and more than 520 injured.
Incident
At 08:08 and 58 seconds
BSTWestern European Summer Time is a summer daylight saving time scheme, 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in the following places:* the Canary Islands* the Faroe Islands* Ireland* the Crown dependencies* the Madeira islands...
a three-car
Class 165The British Rail Class 165 Turbo diesel multiple units were built by BREL at York Works from 1990–1992. These units are suburban trains, with an express version appearing later in the form of the Class 166 Turbo Express trains...
diesel multiple unitA diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
train (no 165 115), operated by
Thames TrainsThames Trains was a British railway company franchised to run regional and suburban trains from London Paddington station to destinations in the home counties west of London, to Worcester, Hereford and Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Reading to Gatwick Airport service.With effect from 1 April 2004, the...
collided with a
First Great WesternFirst Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup, which operates services in the west and south west of England and South Wales....
High Speed TrainThere are three types of trains in Britain that have been traditionally viewed as high speed trains:* Advanced Passenger Train - Tilting trains which never entered into regular revenue-earning service....
(which consisted of eight
Mark 3British Rail's third fundamental design of carriage was designated 'Mark 3' , and was developed primarily for the InterCity 125 High Speed Train...
passenger carriages with a
Class 43The British Rail Class 43 is the TOPS classification used for the InterCity 125 High Speed Train power cars, built by BREL from 1976 to 1982....
power car at each end) (43011 + 43018) at Ladbroke Grove Junction, about two miles (4 km) west of the terminus at London
Paddington stationPaddington station, also known as London Paddington, is a major National Rail and London Underground station complex in the Paddington area of central London, England....
. The trains collided almost head-on at the junction with a combined closing speed of approximately 130 mph (210 km/h).
The first car of the Thames train, the 0806 from Paddington to
Bedwynright|400px|View eastwards from Great Bedwyn showing canal and railwayGreat Bedwyn is a village and civil parish in the east of the English county of Wiltshire.-Location:...
,
WiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in the south west of England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers 3,485 km²...
, driven by Michael Hodder, was totally destroyed on impact, and the diesel fuel carried by this train at the start of its daily journey ignited, causing a series of separate fires in the wreckage, particularly in coach H at the front of the HST, which was completely burnt out. Thirty-one people, including the drivers of both trains involved, were killed, and 227 people were admitted to hospital. A further 296 people were treated at the site of the crash for minor injuries.
Cause
The immediate cause of the disaster was identified as Driver Hodder passing
signalA signal is a mechanical or electrical device erected beside a railway line to pass information relating to the state of the line ahead to train drivers/engineers. The driver interprets the signal's indication and acts accordingly...
SN109 when it was showing a red aspect (technically known as a
Signal Passed At DangerSignal passed at danger , in British railway terminology, describes an event where a train has run beyond its allocated signal block without authority, as indicated by a lineside signal showing danger...
or SPAD), 563 metres before the impact point. However, the public inquiry conducted over the next year by
Lord CullenWilliam Douglas Cullen, Baron Cullen of Whitekirk, KT, PC, QC, FRSE, Hon FEng , is one of the senior members of the Scottish Judiciary...
identified many contributory factors, blaming Thames Trains' driver training procedures: Driver Hodder had only qualified 13 days earlier, there was no documentary evidence of him being taught anything about the complexities of the route, and his Drivers' Rules examination paper bore neither his signature nor had any 'pass/fail' ticks on it to indicate that any subjects had been discussed. (Vaughn 2003)
Also identified was
RailtrackRailtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from its formation in April 1994 until 2002...
's Great Western Zone (who were responsible for the maintenance of the track and
signallingRailway signalling is a system used to control railway traffic safely, essentially to prevent trains from colliding. Being guided by fixed rails, trains are uniquely susceptible to collision; furthermore, trains cannot stop quickly, and frequently operate at speeds that do not enable them to stop...
) who had not taken appropriate action in view of the fact that there had been eight SPADs at signal SN109 in the preceding six years (although all those trains stopped before reaching the junction), or taken sufficient action in response to complaints from train drivers about the visibility of various signals, particularly SN109.
The
Health and Safety ExecutiveThe Health and Safety Executive is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland...
's
HM Railway InspectorateEstablished in 1840, HM Railway Inspectorate was the British organisation responsible for overseeing safety on Britain's railways and tramways...
was also criticised for its inspection procedures, and the Railtrack signalling centre staff at
SloughSlough , situated west of Charing Cross, is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. At the time of the 2001 census, the population of Slough was 119,070 Slough , situated west of Charing Cross, is a borough and unitary authority...
were criticised for not sending a radio "emergency all stop" signal immediately when it was realised that the Thames Train had passed a signal at danger. They were expecting the train to stop shortly after the signal as had happened with the earlier SPADs at that signal, and it is not known if the radio signal eventually sent was received before the impact 33 seconds later. Finally, the system did not provide flank protection; points ahead could have been set as a default to divert an overrunning train to a parallel line instead of into a head-on collision. (Hall 2003)
Aftermath
Lord Cullen led a public inquiry into the crash, the recommendations of which led to the creation in 2003 of the
Rail Safety and Standards BoardThe Rail Safety and Standards Board is an independent not-for-profit company, which was established in 2003, upon the recommendation of the public inquiry into the Ladbroke Grove rail crash...
On 5 April 2004, Thames Trains was fined a record £2,000,000 for violations of health and safety law in connection with this accident.
On 31 October 2006,
Network RailNetwork Rail owns and operates Britain’s rail infrastructure. It is a British "not for dividend" company limited by guarantee whose principal asset is Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, a company limited by shares....
pleaded guilty to charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in relation to the accident. They received a fine of £4 million on 30 March 2007, and were ordered to pay £225,000 in costs.
Signal SN109 was brought back into service in February 2006. It and many other signals in the Paddington area are now single-lens type signals.
The crash site
The disaster occurred at the point where the main line from London to
South WalesSouth Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
and the
West of EnglandThe West of England is a loose and locationally unspecific term sometimes given to the area surrounding the City and County of Bristol, England, and also sometimes applied more widely and in other parts of South West England.-Use in the Bristol area:...
switches from two lines in each direction, carrying fast and slow trains, to multiple lines signalled to allow trains to travel in either direction, in and out of the platforms of Paddington Station. The track layout had been modified in this way by
British RailBritish Railways , which later traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the British railway system from the nationalisation of the 'Big Four' British railway companies in 1948 until privatisation in stages from 1994 to 1997...
in the early 1990s, but the line had subsequently been electrified to allow the new
Heathrow ExpressHeathrow Express is an express train service from London Heathrow Airport to London Paddington station in Central London operated by the Heathrow Express Operating Authority, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BAA. It was opened by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998...
service to operate from 1994, and the new overhead catenary obstructed the view of various signals. Signal SN109 had a particularly restricted view as there was a road bridge over the railway line one hundred metres before the gantry on which SN109, together with four other signals, was mounted. The design of signal SN109 was non-standard, in that it was shaped like a reversed "L", with the red lamp on the horizontal arm rather than below the other lenses, as is standard, and it is thought that this, together with the bright sun rising in the east behind the train and shining directly into the signal lenses may have misled the inexperienced Driver Hodder into thinking that the signal was showing a proceed aspect.
This was the second major accident on the Great Western Main Line in just over two years, the first being the
Southall rail crashThe Southall rail crash was an accident on the British railway system that occurred on 19 September 1997, on the Great Western Main Line at Southall, west London...
of September 1997, a few miles west, and this severely damaged public confidence in the safety of
Britain's privatised railway systemThe United Kingdom consists of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and previously consisted of Great Britain and the whole of Ireland. Rail transport systems developed independently on the two islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and most of the railway construction in the Republic of Ireland was...
.
A memorial garden, partially overlooking the site, is accessible from the adjacent Sainsburys supermarket car park.
Dramatisation
On 20 September 2005,
Derailed, a 90-minute documentary-drama programme based on the Ladbroke Grove crash, was aired on BBC1. This dramatisation was heavily criticised in the railway press, with the editor of
Rail magazineRAIL is a UK magazine on the subject of current rail transport in Great Britain. It is published every two weeks by Bauer and is available in the transport sections of many British bookshops, especially WH Smith...
(Nigel Harris) describing it as a "trashy piece of subjective story-telling" (issue 523). The programme itself clearly stated that the chronology of actual events had been changed, and some scenes fabricated, to "add clarity".
External links