The safety of up to 700 sets of points used across the rail network will be called into question next month as a key report outlines the causes of last February's fatal train crash in Cumbria (link below.)
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2007/08/cumbria_rail_crash_report_to_q.html#moreA study of the Grayrigg derailment , due to be published over the next fortnight , will provoke concern about decades-old railway technology that is still in widespread use.
The rail industry report is expected to state that Network Rail will examine the design of groundframe points after a faulty set derailed a Virgin train travelling at 95mph on February 23 2007 killing one person and injuring 22. If the equipment needs to be replaced the rail infrastructure firm would have to change up to 700 sets of points at a cost of millions.
Network Rail is braced for another outburst of public concern about the safety of the railways once the report is published. Confidence in the railways has recovered significantly since the Potters Bar crash which killed seven people in 2002 , but industry sources have warned that the Grayrigg report will make alarming reading because of the incident's similarities with Potters Bar , which was also caused by faulty points.
Alongside concerns over the points , the study's focus will be a breakdown in communications among Network Rail's Cumbria workforce which contributed directly to the crash. It is expected to state that track inspections were not carried out as planned , that records of inspections were flawed and that safety certification used by some engineers had expired.
Industry sources also confirmed reports yesterday that two different inspection teams thought the other had inspected the points prior to the crash and therefore failed to inspect a crucial stretch of track at Grayrigg. As a result, a Virgin Pendolino train travelling from London to Glasgow on the night of February 23 was derailed by a broken set of points that should have been noticed earlier by track inspection teams.
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