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An intercity train which derailed following a suspected landslip during heavy rain this morning was travelling at 80mph - but nobody was seriously injured. The hero driver, who has not yet been named, was praised for doing a ‘superb job’ in bringing the 4.28am service from Glasgow Central to a halt without major casualties. Although all 77 passengers and 10 crew were checked by paramedics, only four needed treatment for minor injuries at the scene and none needed hospital treatment. The 11-carriage Avanti West Coast train travelling from Glasgow to London from remained upright with just the front carriage leaving the tracks after apparently striking debris at 6.15am. The West Coast Main Line could be closed for several days while the train – which suffered substantial damage to its buckled driver’s cab – is moved and investigation work takes place. Passengers on board the train described a ‘flash and a bang’ followed by ‘scraping sounds’ as the train derailed at Shap, Cumbria, the highest point on the weatherbeaten line at some 900ft (275m) above sea level. Sam MacDougall, a Network Rail operations director, said in a press conference at the scene: ‘We believe the train was travelling at approximately 80mph before the collision and then stopped very quickly thereafter. ‘The driver did a superb job in being the train to a stand and initiate an emergency call. ‘Network Rail’s emergency processes, along with those of all of our partner agencies, were immediately activated and the Avanti West Coast crew did an excellent job looking after the passengers onboard.’ He added emergency services ‘worked in extremely challenging terrain and appalling weather conditions’ due to the heavy rain. Local MP and former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, whose constituency includes Shap, said: 'I feel a sense of immense relief and gratitude that there wasn't loss of life. 'It wasn't just down to luck but skill of the driver and the design of the train. 'But it cannot the right that the first we know of a landslip blocking tracks is when a train derails at 80mph.' Mr Farron called for technology to be put in place to warn of landslips and halt trains before derailments occur. Emergency personal ferried ‘shocked but calm’ passengers and crew to the nearby Shap Wells Hotel, where they were comforted and given tea and coffee, before being put onto coaches. Hotel owner Shabeeh Hassan said: ‘They had obviously been through quite an experience. Thankfully no one was hurt. We were happy to help out.’ Shocked passenger James Burrow said: ‘A lot happened very quickly. At first, we thought we’d hit a car or something had hit the train. I’m just glad everyone was ok.’ Network Rail has referred the incident, which it said followed ‘a suspected landslip in the area’ to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch – and promised to get services ‘back up and running as quickly as we can’. Shap is around 15 miles north of Grayrigg, where a train operated by Avanti’s predecessor Virgin Trains derailed at 95mph due to faulty points in February 2007 – killing one passenger and injuring over 80 people. Network Rail was later fined £4m over the health and safety failings in relation to the crash, in which Margaret Masson, 84, from Glasgow, died. The incident also has echoes of the Carmont rail crash, near Stonehaven, Scotland, in August 2020, for which Network Rail was also fined £6.7m over health and safety failures. Three people died including the train driver after a Scotrail inter-city train was derailed by a landslide in heavy rain and the locomotive and front carriages plunged down an embankment. Mr MacDougall said ‘a full and thorough investigation’ would take place, adding: ‘Early indications suggest the train has struck a landslide, just north of where it now stands.’ He praised the design of the Pendolino train – which dates from the early 2000s – as having ‘worked extremely well’. Avanti’s managing director, Andy Mellors, said: ‘Our main priority is the safety and wellbeing of our customers and colleagues following this serious incident. ‘I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and gratitude for the actions of our colleagues onboard which has been warmly received and appreciated by customers. ‘I would also like to thank our staff who responded, the emergency services, Network Rail and the local hotel who laid on facilities for everyone onboard. We are now ensuring we provide support to those affected.’ Mr Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, earlier called for an investigation into whether enough resources were being spent protecting the line on which ‘there are regular cancellations because of landslips’. Referring to the cancellation of a modernisation plan for rail lines in the area, he said: ‘That is a bad decision. Whether this is caused by that or not, I don’t know.’ But Mr Farron told The Guardian: ‘A landslip here is not an unusual thing to happen.’ Mr MacDougall said: ‘We have invested an awful lot of our resources in understanding the risks associated with severe weather and the associated topography risks. ‘Lancashire and Cumbria , as an area of our operation, does poses specific challenges. ‘We have come a long way in terms of our ability to run trains safely and thankfully these incidents are extremely rare.’
