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At least one victim – a train driver, according to reports from Times – and a few dozen injured, some seriously: this is the still provisional toll of the serious railway collision which occurred late yesterday afternoon near Bedford, about 90 kilometers north of London. Two local trains of the East Midlands Railway collided on the same track, in a collision attributable to a technical fault yet to be ascertained.
The dynamics and the trains involved
According to the first reconstruction, one of the convoys stopped due to a breakdown and was rear-ended by the second. These are two EMR passenger trains headed to London St Pancras, arriving from Nottingham and Corby; one of the two is sometimes used for the Luton Airport Express service to the airport. The accident occurred just south of Bedford, not far from Luton, as reported by the British Transport Police. The causes of the technical failure are under investigation.
Rescues, injuries and inconveniences on the network
Numerous emergency vehicles from the police, fire brigade and health services attended the scene, including an air ambulance. The first witnesses told of a sudden impact and moments of panic. The accident caused a partial blockage of rail traffic, with delays and cancellations along the entire line between St Pancras and Leicester in the Midlands. A second operator, Thameslink, has temporarily suspended its services between Luton and Bedford. The authorities have asked people to avoid the area and, if possible, not to travel along the routes involved.
The government’s reaction
The Transport Minister of Keir Starmer’s government, Heidi Alexander, said she was “deeply concerned”. He thanked the rescuers “for the assistance provided to the people involved”, assuring that he was working in real time with those responsible for the network to guarantee aid, a rapid return to normality and collaboration in the investigations.
Rare accidents in the UK
Collisions of this type are relatively rare in the country. Among the latest we remember the one in 2023 in Aviemore, in the Scottish Highlands, between a local train and a historic convoy stopped at the station. More serious was the derailment in August 2020 in Stonehaven, also in Scotland, caused by a landslide after heavy rain: a train driver, a conductor and a passenger died, with six other people injured. For that affair, Network Rail, the public body that manages the network, pleaded guilty to safety shortcomings and was sentenced to pay 6.7 million pounds.