Loose screws caused train door to be open at 80mph for 23 minutes
Written by News on 27/11/2019
Loose screws caused a door to be open on a passenger train that was travelling at 80mph, a report found.
The Greater Anglia train travelled 16 miles through Essex for 23 minutes with the coach door open while passengers were inside.
The service left Shenfield at 6.58am before a passenger alerted the driver at Hockley, where the train was taken out of service.
Greater Anglia later found loose screws on “at least 60 doorways” in its fleet of refurbished Class 321 carriages, according to the Rail Accident Investigation Board report.
The train operator said it has introduced tougher safety measures and will carry out additional checks on its train doors “from now on”.
The door which failed to shut had become detached from a mechanism which allows it to open and close.
Two screws which had fallen out and four washers were found by the train driver when the service stopped at Hockley.
The door mechanism, which was unattached to the door, had been able to return to the closed position, and this meant the driver was given an incorrect signal that all the doors were closed.
The carriage involved had returned to service after refurbishment in January 2019.
No faults were noted on the door involved in the incident after a routine maintenance examination in April this year.
Visual checks for evidence of the unit’s door bracket screws becoming loose were also carried out in June.
The RAIB said in its report: “The apparent omission of yellow marks during refurbishment meant that one of the visual indications of a loose screw was absent, reducing the likelihood of checks identifying any loosening of the incident screws.
“The lack of yellow marks on these screws was not reported nor addressed at that time.”
A Greater Anglia spokesperson said: “We apologise to customers affected by this incident.
“We take the safety of our trains and customers extremely seriously. We have cooperated fully with RAIB in their investigations as well as carrying out our own investigation.
“We have introduced new more stringent safety procedures and are committed to carrying out additional checks on our trains’ doors from now on.”
(c) Sky News 2019: Loose screws caused train door to be open at 80mph for 23 minutes
