NR and ORR investigate after lorry ends up on ECML

NETWORK Rail is carrying out an investigation after a Heavy Goods Vehicle crashed through a wall and ended up on the East Coast Main Line.

The Office of Rail and Road is also “making enquiries” into the incident, which took place shortly after 1330 on June 23.

The London-Edinburgh route was blocked after a lorry left the A199 Haddington Road near Wallyford (Musselburgh), broke through a masonry wall, and fell down the cutting side. The driver of the HGV was taken to hospital.

LNER terminated services from the south at Newcastle for the remainder of June 23 and the morning of June 24, to enable recovery of the lorry and infrastructure repairs.

NR had the road vehicle removed using a crane, replaced two damaged 60ft sections of rail, repaired a damaged OLE support arm, and restrung a return conductor.

A location case containing equipment for the nearby St Germains Level Crossing was damaged, but the equipment inside was found to be in working order and “no significant works were required to the signalling systems”, said NR.

Although the incident took place on a day of national strikes with few trains running, nine services were cancelled and another 19 were ‘part cancelled’ (terminated short).

NR told RAIL on June 29 that it was “conducting an investigation into the incident to review the cause and anything we might consider that would reduce the risk or consequences of a reoccurrence, but it’s too early to say what actions might be taken.”

The problem of vehicle incursions onto the railway assumed prominence following the Great Heck crash of February 28 2001. Ten people died after a Land Rover ended up on the ECML near Selby. A southbound GNER service was derailed by the obstruction and ended up in the path of a northbound Freightliner train.

A subsequent Health and Safety Commission report found that on average, there are 0.1 train occupant deaths and 0.4 road vehicle occupant deaths each year as a result of vehicle incursions onto NR lines (excluding at level crossings).

A Department for Transport guideline document, Managing the Accidental Obstruction of the Railway: Road Vehicles, was subsequently revised following a vehicle incursion at Aspatria (Cumbria) in 2013, when an unattended runaway commercial vehicle broke through a cuttingside fence and ended up on the railway.