The derailed train just outside Welshpool Railway Station. Picture by Richard Jones
About 80 rail passengers escaped without injury after a train derailed in a Mid Wales town. The incident happened just outside Welshpool Train Station at 8.15pm yesterday.
The accident continued to affect services today.
An investigation has now been launched into how the Arriva Trains Wales service between Birmingham and Aberystwyth came off the tracks as it pulled into the station.
No-one was injured but fire crews helped passengers off the carriages.
Arriva Trains Wales said services would be affected today, with replacement bus services in place between Shrewsbury and Welshpool until this afternoon.
A spokeswoman said: “Several wheels of the train came off the track just after 8pm last night when the train was arriving at the station. Nobody was injured and all the passengers were led to safety by emergency services.
“Due to the nature of the incident and the investigation which is under way, trains will be disrupted today and replacement bus services will be in place until this afternoon.”
Darren Beale, of Llanidloes, was on the train when the incident happened.
He said: “It was only a minor jolt and nobody was distressed by it – we were more concerned about why the train had stopped.
“But then we looked out and it was clear a carriage had left the tracks.”
A spokesman for Mid & West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said five appliances attended the scene.
He said: “Approximately 80 passengers were assisted from the train by fire service and Railtrack personnel.”
Antony Topazio, of Dyfed-Powys Police, said nobody was hurt and the 80 passengers, including a pregnant woman, were led to safety.
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I was speaking to someone who was travelling on the train; a few passengers got the impression that the train crew didn’t seem very capable at all of either dealing with the problem and, more importantly, informing or reassuring passengers of what was happening. The guard seemed particularly sharp and uncommunicative apparently.
Hope Arriva have got some good answers here. Maybe there was some sort of track defect (which of course would not be Arriva’s problem), but rude staff in a situation like that is indefensible. And that IS Arriva’s problem.
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As an afterthought to my above post, I should add that my friend did point out though that there was no sense of danger experienced by passengers (at least in his own carriage; just bewilderment and a slight unease in older people).
I suppose in part the calmness could be attributed to the presumably prompt actions of the driver, and inherent safety built-into the train, as well as the fact that it wasn’t going very fast!
No doubt a suitably knowledgeable person will tell us what train staff have to do in situations like this (I travelled on the Cambrian Coast Express a few years ago in BR days and the driver and guard went to the front and rear of the train to put down small detonating warnings in case of other trains, and they probably still do that now…)
In which case you can understand why a guard might have more important things on his mind – at that time – than telling passengers they might miss a connection or something!
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