Speeding incidents

Caledonian Sleeper was ten miles south of Penrith running at 67mph while the 50mph BESR was in place.

The GB Railfreight driver had booked on remotely and didn’t receive information about the BESR on the NW route, although he had been informed by GSM-R of relevant BESRs in Scotland.

At 0744, the driver of Avanti West Coast’s 0615 Birmingham New Street-Edinburgh was examining the line north of Warrington, after a report of plastic sheeting on the overhead wires.

The AWC controller asked if the driver was aware of the NW 50mph BESR, and the driver said he was not. The train had run up to 125mph on its journey. The late notice received by the driver incorrectly showed only one BESR in England (Penrith-Cove Level crossing), the opposite of the actual BESR.

Finally, at 0903, ScotRail’s 0709

Glasgow Central-KilmarnockCarlisle ran at 70mph (line speed) when a 50mph BESR was in force. Although the driver had been correctly advised when booking on, he was not aware of an extension to the BESR route to the SanquharThornhill section, issued at 0905 and effective until 1230.

Having made recommendations in its December 4 2021 report about overspeeding between Laurencekirk and Portlethen, RAIB has decided not to investigate further. Instead, it has written to the Office of Rail and Road and copied all train operators and Network Rail, to alert them to the incidents.

An industry initiative is responding to the recommendations. RAIB “hopes that these incidents will inform the industry’s response, particularly around how drivers who book on remotely are informed about BESRs in the absence of GSM-R notification”.