LONDON — The Rail Accident Investigation Branch issued urgent safety advice warning that some line-side earthwork-monitoring systems on Britain’s railway may fail to detect sudden slope collapses, particularly during extreme weather.
As a result, they may not provide data needed for operational decision-making. The notice is directed to Network Rail, other infrastructure managers, and companies that supply or monitor remote earthwork equipment, urging them to assess and, if necessary, mitigate the risk immediately.
RAIB’s alert follows the Nov. 3 derailment of an Avanti West Coast service near Shap Summit between Penrith North Lakes and Oxenholme Lake District, where a train traveling about 83 mph struck landslip debris, derailing a bogie and running off the rails for roughly 560 meters. Nine staff and 86 passengers were aboard; four people sustained minor injuries.
Investigators said heavy, sustained rainfall overwhelmed a drainage channel across a cutting slope, saturating the material and triggering the failure. Although the cutting was fitted with remote sensors designed to detect ground movement, the system had not been formally commissioned to send alerts to Network Rail’s control center.
RAIB found that, hours before the accident, nearby sensors recorded movement below the system’s lowest alert threshold; when the landslip occurred around 4:30 a.m., two sensors were rapidly toppled and buried, likely too quickly to transmit an alert, and their wireless signals could not pass through the covering debris.
RAIB noted that similar systems are operational elsewhere on the network and reiterated that duty holders should urgently review configurations, alerting pathways, and commissioning status to ensure timely warnings can be delivered during adverse conditions.
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