Tuesday 17 Nov 2020
RAIB Report 12/2020: Derailment of a freight train near Wanstead Park
- Region & Route:
- Eastern: Anglia
Network Rail has issued a press statement on the RAIB Report 12/2020: Derailment of a freight train near Wanstead Park
Press statement
Ellie Burrows, route director for Network Rail Anglia said: “We accept we relied too heavily on the GPS data for our track inspections, which wasn’t accurate enough, and as such we missed the opportunities to adjust the gauge of the track before the derailment at Wanstead Park. We’re grateful that no one was hurt and very sorry that the resulting damage caused weeks of disruption to passengers and our freight customers. Since the incident, we have reviewed and improved our maintenance inspection and reporting processes to prevent any future incident.
“In addition, all softwood longitudinal timbers that were damaged during the derailment have been replaced with hardwood*. We now use a new testing technique that enables us to inspect the inside of timbers and identify if it is rotting, even if from the outside it looks fine. In addition, all of our wheel timber inspectors have undergone specialist training to help them identify hidden problems and we have appointed a senior asset engineer to coordinate our wheel timber programme.”
*except for Ramsay Road bridge which has deadload restrictions
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