Tag Archives: West Coast Railways

More bad news for the West Coast Railway Company. The Office of Rail and Road have prohibited the heritage train operator from running rail services following repeated safety breaches.

Safety incidents involving WCRC over the past year include:

In June 2015, a WCRC train moved forward while preparing to leave Reading station, due to miscommunication between the guard and driver.

In September 2015, a WCRC train collided with the buffers at Weymouth, In September 2015, ORR inspectors found WCRC’s safety risk assessments for operating steam trains were out of date and that, even so, WCRC staff were not aware of their existence.

In October 2015, staff on a WCRC train near Doncaster turned off its Train Protection and Warning System isolation equipment, designed to apply an emergency brake if the driver makes an error.

All these were after the earlier suspension following the Wootton Bassett incident involving “Tangmere”, which leads to the conclusion the WCRC’s management have not got their act together and made safety a sufficient priority, and indeed suggests that it was only a matter of time before their luck ran out and there was a serious accident with the possibility of multiple fatalities.

This leaves DB Schenker as the only licenced operator of steam trains on the main line.

As for WCRC, they’re now drinking in the last chance saloon, if that isn’t a highly inapproriate metaphor. It’s not hard to imagine the company going into liquidation, with their assets including locmotives and rolling stock sold to another operator.

That thump you heard was the sound of The Book being thrown at The West Coast Railway Company.  ORR is to prosecute over the incident at Wootton Bassett

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has today started criminal proceedings against train operator West Coast Railway Company Limited (WCRC) and one of its drivers. The charges relate to breaches of Health and Safety Law which led to a train passing a signal warning at danger on 7 March 2015.

The prosecutions follow ORR’s investigation into an incident involving a steam locomotive operated by WCRC, which passed a signal at danger near Wootton Bassett junction, Wiltshire. This extremely serious incident resulted in the train coming to a stop 550 metres after the signal, across a busy junction on the Great Western main line, directly in the path of high speed trains.

The train’s driver is facing charges under section 7(a) and 8 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA). This relates to his alleged intentional misuse of the Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) equipment. ORR’s investigation found that the driver directed a colleague to turn off this essential safety system, designed to apply an emergency brake if the driver makes an error.

WCRC is separately facing charges under section 3(1) and 2(1) of the HSWA. This is on account of its alleged failure to implement managerial controls, procedures, training and monitoring to prevent staff turning off the TPWS equipment.

ORR has been closely monitoring WCRC’s operation since this incident. ORR has also today launched a review of WCRC’s safety certificate, which is needed to operate its trains on the rail network.

This comes after the West Coast Railway Company had it’s steam operators’ licence suspended a second time after another incident in which a driver isolated the TPWS system on a moving locomotive hauling a train carrying passengers.