Cumbria Train Crash February 2007

Alison ediss
my friend who lives at Lonsleddale kendal he spoke on tele on saturday morning and told horrific details of this bad accident in cumbria . When i first saw it on television i was shocked and confused how it all started . I want to wish all the familys support on behalf on the death and several injures of the horrific train crash.

John Williams
An accident that should never have happened. This has possibly been caused by lack of maintenance of points but more important the supervision and inspection of the work carried out. It will be said that there is a lack of money but it is being spent on personel sitting in offices instead of getting qualified people working out on the track. What is the point of Richard Branson providing these safe high speed trains if the track is limiting there capabilities.

John Graham
Years agho when I was on the railway all facing points were interlocked. The linesman walked the length daily and would notice every little thing that was amiss. Sadly in these days of automation cutbacks on manual labour is producing the resultant chaos. What price human life.

cumbria fire and rescue fire fighter
arriving at the scene we were immediately struck by the huge implications of the accidents remoteness. these were further complicated by the conditions... Dark, Wet, Cold, Fields churned with mud. Heavy equipment needed to be lifted in. Portable halogen lighting and generators. Extendable Ladders. Hydraulic cutting gear. Local Farmers were assisting using there all terrain quad bikes and trailers to ferry equipment from the pumps to the rail. Access up the embankment was difficult. Very Steep and tangled vegetation with Powercables twisting all over the place. The emergency services were co-ordinating equipment dumps, search & evacuation teams, casualty areas. A large number of police had been brought to the scene, as far a field as Glasgow & Manchester. ??? Maybe there was concern about a potential terrorist threat. Helicopters were landing and taking off. There was a painful delay in the power being switched off on the line before we could gain access to the carraiges. Teams or fire fighters and paramedics search carriages several times and then withdrawn to let urban search and rescue teams in with dogs to search. Then RAF helicopters sweep area with thermal imaging cameras. You can see teams of mountain rescue volunteers sweeping the surrounding area for passengers that may have wandered off into the darkness. Rescue Teams growing fatigued and food and drink are brought to a forward post to fuel the rescue effort. We see the passengers evacuated from the Farm House to awaiting transport. Even in protective clothing rescue personnel find conditions arduous. By the time we are sent back to our station accident investigators are already inspecting site.

Alan Marsh
Too many agencies seem to be involved in maintaining our railways nowadays, and worst of all many of them are doing it for profit, which all too often seems to come before any other issue. I have a railway at the bottom of our garden and it is impossible to keep track of who is working on it on a week to week basis - and this is a one track branch line! We pay to subsidise the route, which is poorly used. Maintaining the mainline must be a horrendous logistical nightmare with so many different users to consult, and contractors to organise. No wonder errors are made - and the West Coast Line has been neglected for so long!