Derailment

Just speculating here:
A dodgy bit of track causing the train to bounce off, or a broken rail.
A bit of equipment being stored in the tunnel by a contractor or LUL "falling" onto the track (it happened on the Northern a few weeks back).

At least no-one is seriously injured, just late for work.

Well , aslogn as no one was badly hurt. Reminds me of the time i was in the train behind the Chancery Lane accident. At least it wasn't that bad...

What are the chances it turns out to be another traction motor deciding to part company with the rest of the train?

Just had a very slow journey W Acton - Holborn, it seems due to problems with trains reversing at Liverpool St. As there's two siding there (I think) surely it should be possible to reverse almost the whole normal service there? Don't think there could have been many trains between White City and Liverpool St as I waited 15 plus minutes at N Acton and when I got off at Holborn the next train was shown as 14 minutes away.

Latest from the BBC site:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6272662.stm

Its OK when they use the sidings adjacent to the WB road as the train can exit without any conflict, however when it comes to getting a train out of the siddings next to the EB road you have to make sure it does not conflict with the move into the other sidings, which takes a bit of doing. Couple of with the amount of trains that the central line has in the peak, it would be night impossible to reverse the whole service there at that time of the day and keep up the same service that would normally be on offer.

EDIT: There also was a siding occupied with an engineers train.

I *suspect* this is probably a track related defect, as if something had fallen off a train, the central line would probably have no service at all, similar to what happened after the incident at Chancery Lane.

Perhaps this link could throw some light on the reason for the
derailment :-

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/05/ntube105.xml

Metronet

The following is from Yahoo Canada, just to give a perspective from a different part of the world

ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/britain_accident_rail

wow makes me think it must have been pretty heavy duty stuff to derail a 100tonne train, A friend of mine who works for the met has just told me its thoughts of vandalism!!

One question, what is Bale Material?

I use a Baler at work, you put recyclables in it and a ram pushes down with an exerted force of 20 tonnes, does it have anything to do with this?

One of the things that worries me, is the fact it takes 2 hours to evacutae the trains. Imagine if this would've happened in middle of summer!

Proves perhaps we need the station staff, and the closures of the ticket office and nearly 300 jobs being lost means these events may take longer to remedy.

I found this on the Rail Accident Investigation Branch website.

Investigation into a derailment at Mile End on 5 July 2007
The RAIB is carrying out an investigation into a derailment at Mile End on the Central Line of London Underground on 5 July 2007.

Six axles of a westbound Central Line train derailed shortly after 09:00 hrs on the morning of 5 July 2007. The derailment took place in a tunnel between Mile End and Bethnal Green. RAIB Inspectors have attended the site and are investigating the reasons for the derailment.

Approximately 550 passengers have been evacuated from the train. The RAIB understands that a small number of minor injuries and one more serious injury have occurred.

The RAIB's investigation into the derailment is proceeding independently of any parallel investigations by the British Transport Police and the safety authority, but the RAIB will share technical evidence as appropriate, subject to legal exclusions such as the identity and statements of witnesses.

The RAIB will publish a report, including any recommendations to improve safety, at the conclusion of its investigation. This report will be available on the RAIB website.

You can subscribe to automated emails notifying you when the RAIB publishes its reports. Click to subscribe.

The report should be out in a couple of weeks/months.

As a general point, I think this highlights the huge responsibility a train operator has, and why they should be paid well.

To suddenly be responsible for 600 odd people in the moments after an incident like this must be very stressful to say the least -thankfully it is a very rare event.

There does seem to have been quite a delay between the incident, and actual detrainment here. Obviously living here, we only get half a story, but it sounded like there was up to two hours before people were allowed off the trains.

My take, is that the current has to be left on to reverse/move trains to stations to detrain, then current switch off to allow passengers to be lead up the tracks to the nearest station.

Pleasing to know that although there were injuries, none were serious. Hats off to all those who ensured the safety of up to 600 people.

Not necessary - Moscow morons threw an iron grating on the track once, and the leading bogie of the next train derailed (fortunately for everyone, on a very low speed).