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Network Rail safety advice after train hit bricks

RAIB The collapsed wall and rear of the trainRAIB
The collapsed wall and rear of the train after it hit the bricks at Yarnton

Safety recommendations have been made to Network Rail after a train hit a pile of bricks from a collapsed wall.

The Great Western Railway (GWR) train ran into the rubble in Yarnton, Oxfordshire, on 10 February 2023.

Damage meant it could not move and more than 360 passengers had to be helped from carriages onto another train.

Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) recommendations include improving assessing structural defects and how it specifies repair work.

RAIB Bricks on a rail track from a collapsed wall in Yarnton,RAIB
The pile of bricks were struck by the Great Western Railway London Paddington to Hereford service on 10 February 2023

The driver of the service from London Paddington to Hereford made an emergency stop after hitting the bricks at 18:35 GMT, radioed the signaller and asked them to block the line.

There were no injuries to the staff or passengers on the train which had been travelling at 58mph (93 km/h) at the time.

The driver reported the pile of bricks was 10m (33ft) long and 2.5m (8ft) high.

The RAIB said the wall collapsed when it was no longer able to carry the load imposed by the embankment it was supporting.

Network Rail Repaired wall collapse after landslip at YarntonNetwork Rail
Specialist civil engineering contractors were brought in to build a retaining wall to support the embankment

It was "known to be in poor condition" by Network Rail but "effective control measures had not been put in place", investigators found.

The collapse happened within three weeks of an examining engineer observing that a bulge in the brickwork had increased since a previous inspection.

There is a process for an examiner to directly notify Network Rail if they identify something that requires urgent attention, but this was not thought to be the case in this instance, according to the report.

RAIB Yarnton rail line wall collapseRAIB
The line was blocked for 11 days after the wall collapsed

A Network Rail spokesperson said: "Safety is our top priority and we'd like to thank passengers for their patience while we worked to repair the bridge in February 2023.

"Following the incident we have assessed the condition of over 200 similarly constructed bridges using existing data, 10 of which received targeted site visits and inspections.

"Repair work to one of those bridges is ongoing.

"We welcome the RAIB's report into the incident, our teams are working to address the findings and share learning around specific risk of this type of masonry.

"We will continue to work alongside our contractors to implement the four recommendations produced by the RAIB investigation."

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