Wednesday 11 May 2005

SLOW SPEED DERAILMENT AT KEW

Region & Route:
| Southern: Wessex
| Southern
At 11.07pm on Tuesday 10 May there was a slow speed derailment of a Freightliner locomotive and three empty passenger train coaches at Kew in South West London.  The incident occurred on a freight-only line which has a maximum speed of 20mph.  The driver was not injured and the carriages have remained upright.  The train involved was the 22.35 service from Selhurst depot to Bedford depot. South West Trains services on the Hounslow Loop have been disrupted and services are being diverted via Richmond and Twickenham.  Passengers travelling between Barnes and Hounslow are advised to use London buses, London Underground services or replacement bus services provided by South West Trains. Network Rail engineers have been working through the night in an effort to reopen the line as soon as possible.  Extensive repair work is needed to the track, it is expected the line will be reopened by this evening.  The cause of the incident is not yet known but a full internal investigation has been launched.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - South East route
020 3357 7969
southeastroutecomms@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk