BBC News - Manchester-Liverpool rail line closed after Salford car crash - 07/02

[sannox]

The car has stood up well to that kind of accident.

 

[Porty]

Would they be allowed to reopen the line without repairing the hole in the wall?

Well a vehicle landed on the ECML tracks at Wallyford a couple of years back and the stone wall that was flattened took about a year to be repaired. Temporary fence for the intervening period.

 

[pdq]

Came from: https://x.com/NetworkRailMAN/status/1887840807824019745

OT, but that photo shows just how strong modern cars are, even when taking a blow they won't have been tested for. The cabin - the front in particular - is only compromised a little. The crumple zone has done its job and the nearside doors aren't crumpled lengthways at all.

 

[Geeves]

Just to add the bridge where the car has come through from that photo is actually the old road bridge in the middle of the big roundabout if you look at it on Google maps.

So the car wasn't even an area meant for cars! He was on a bike lane/long closed road. We originally thought he had flew a long way from the road at the bridge before but it appears not.

 

[swt_passenger]

Just to add the bridge where the car has come through from that photo is actually the old road bridge in the middle of the big roundabout if you look at it on Google maps.

So the car wasn't even an area meant for cars! He was on a bike lane/long closed road. We originally thought he had flew a long way from the road at the bridge before but it appears not.

There’s a good video report on the BBC here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0k5214vn6pt?post=asset:55d91a2c-1a66-42dc-b426-2bb02abcf1d6#post

This suggests from the tyre tracks he definitely did come from the motorway, then over the grass, but by sheer luck managed to get the car between a number of trees that might have brought it to a halt earlier. Seems to me it must have been a high speed accident to get over the initial barrier.

 

[muz379]

I seem to recall a similar accident at this roundabout at the end of the M602 a few years back where similar to this in the early hours of the morning a vehicle hit the first concrete wall you come to at the end of the M602 causing it to collapse onto the railway below dont think the car itself ended up on the tracks in that incident though . Indeed if you look at streetview pictures taken from 2023 that wall has temporary fencing up around it .

 

[aaronspence]

I seem to recall a similar accident at this roundabout at the end of the M602 a few years back where similar to this in the early hours of the morning a vehicle hit the first concrete wall you come to at the end of the M602 causing it to collapse onto the railway below . Indeed if you look at streetview pictures taken from 2023 that wall has temporary fencing up around it .

Looks like it has a proper concrete wall in 2021, and has had concrete dividers there ever since, so clearly in no rush to repair it!

 

[muz379]

Looks like it has a proper concrete wall in 2021, and has had concrete dividers there ever since, so clearly in no rush to repair it!

Mad how the 2021 picture there isn't even any crash barrier , right at the end of a motorway .

 

[greatkingrat]

Very misleading quote on the BBCs live text page

Can I get a ticket refund?published at 15:11
With trains heavily disrupted by the crash, National Rail says those who had to abandon their journey due to cancellations should be able to get a refund at the point of purchase.

But a spokesperson for the network operator says those who bought tickets from a third-party seller may have to pay an admin fee.

 

[enginedin]

I'm interested in how they extracted the casualty, presumably must have been a job for a HART Team + fire brigade, but it's not easy to get a casualty out of any kind of cutting

 

[muz379]

I'm interested in how they extracted the casualty, presumably must have been a job for a HART Team + fire brigade, but it's not easy to get a casualty out of any kind of cutting

There is a network rail access point / depot at Windsor street literally brings you down to track level right by the roundabout . Wouldn't be suprised if they used that

 

[sjm77]

There is a network rail access point / depot at Windsor street literally brings you down to track level right by the roundabout . Wouldn't be suprised if they used that

Looking at the pictures on BBC Live Feed, Google Maps and Street View, the 3 grey corrugated portacabins suggest that is excrly what they did!

 

[DJH1971]

From previous threads, it seems Chester/North Wales crews do not sign Crewe-Piccadilly via Wilmslow, nor vice versa.
They could probably do Chester-Piccadilly via Northwich but seem reluctant to do that these days.

Well, they can't use the Liverpool to Manchester CLC line.

 

[Ianigsy]

Not the best time to be going from Leeds to Birkenhead- with the 1630 Liverpool and 1645 airport both cancelled, I’m on the Calder Valley train which would normally go to Chester. Fortunately 2x 2car 196s but still people standing.

 

[DaveyJones]

Thanks, think it will buff out?

I take it the crane can work on both road and rail looking at the tyres - is it strong enough to lift a train carriage off and away?

I highly doubt it, but it'll move most materials Network Rail need for maintenance without any sweat.

 

[Trackman]

The car has stood up well to that kind of accident.

I wonder if the OHLE helped in any way with the impact?

I seem to recall a similar accident at this roundabout at the end of the M602 a few years back where similar to this in the early hours of the morning a vehicle hit the first concrete wall you come to at the end of the M602 causing it to collapse onto the railway below dont think the car itself ended up on the tracks in that incident though . Indeed if you look at streetview pictures taken from 2023 that wall has temporary fencing up around it .

I imagine this will be all reviewed very soon.

I take it the crane can work on both road and rail looking at the tyres - is it strong enough to lift a train carriage off and away?

Very much doubt it, seen a video of the removal of the car, it had to be scraped along the rails and trackbed to the compound, unless it couldn't go any higher because of the intact OHLE.
For a carriage, it would need some serious ballast if it had the power to lift it and a secure base.

 

[Falcon1200]

The problem appears to be Network Rails own fault: an inadequate bridge parapet

No it is not, the fault lies 100% with the car driver.

I wonder how many bridge parapets on actual roads are built to withstand a vehicle impact at speed?

Considering the bridge is used daily by thousands of HGV's I would have thought the bridge was designed to keep errant HGV's on the road and not onto the rails?

This is by no means the first time a road vehicle, cars as well as lorries, has demolished a bridge parapet. This particular parapet was not even on a road, however!

 

[185]

That would just deliver motorway speed cars to the junction with Trinity Way and Mancunian way. A tight turn at speed with far more pedestrain footfall about. Sounds like a death trap to me!

Nope, you'd have what they've got at the other end of the 62 - a speed camera near the Rocket pub. End of the 56 is similar, with a speed camera in Didsbury outside the primary school. Currently it's a free for all on that roundabout and Regent Road, few get stopped for driving at 75mph+ all the way to Sainsbury's.

 

[BlueLeanie]

Came from: https://x.com/NetworkRailMAN/status/1887840807824019745

I know that there is absolutely no way the crane would be on the track unless the overhead had been absolutely, definitely, unquestionably isolated.

Still makes me feel uncomfortable just looking at it though.

 

[Dr_Paul]

The problem appears to be Network Rails own fault: an inadequate bridge parapet. Given the weight of traffic using the bridge it should have been constructed to withstand a maximum credible accident. Which, on a road used by 40 to HGVs is more than a mere collision by la lightweight vehicle.

Looking at the various reports and at Google Earth, it seems that the motor broke through a parapet on a footbridge in the centre of a big roundabout, which takes a footpath over the railway. I doubt if the folk responsible for designing the bridge thought that a motor would be hitting the bridge parapet at all, let along hitting a considerable speed, as this one seems to have done.

 

[Horizon22]

Looking at the various reports and at Google Earth, it seems that the motor broke through a parapet on a footbridge in the centre of a big roundabout, which takes a footpath over the railway. I doubt if the folk responsible for designing the bridge thought that a motor would be hitting the bridge parapet at all, let along hitting a considerable speed, as this one seems to have done.

This specific video from the BBC live reporting page explains the route taken the best.

 

[800001]

BBC News now reporting the line has reopened. Good work by NWR to get it all cleared and repaired.

Rail lines reopen after car plunges onto tracks

Disruption is still expected until the end of Friday as trains and crews have been displaced

www.bbc.co.uk

Rail lines that were closed after a suspected drink-driver's car careered over a roundabout and landed on the tracks have reopened.

Network Rail said the crash, which happened in Salford at 02:00 GMT on Friday, caused "significant damage to the railway and overhead electric cables", closing both the main line between Liverpool and Manchester, and the Chat Moss line.

Efforts to get the Chat Moss line reopened have seen workmen create new metal brackets for the damaged overhead cables to try to alleviate rail travel chaos across the north-west and north Wales.

 

[Ianigsy]

Eventually reached Birkenhead just after 8 - Calder Valley stopper Leeds to Victoria, Metrolink to Piccadilly and just made a slightly delayed 1837 EMT to Liverpool. More or less 90 minutes late, but that’s as much a reflection of how good the full TPE service has been since December.

 

[185]

Should mention several times I went Man Vic & Picc to WBQ via Atherton, Wigan NW & a reversal some years ago whilst work was taking place. Won't be on many route cards nowadays.

 

[JD2168]

Thankfully no Trains we’re running at the time of this accident. It makes me wonder what speed the car driver was doing to go through a couple of walls, clip a tree & fall on the track.

 

[Edsmith]

Looking at the photo at the top, I was not expecting the driver to have made it out alive. Very lucky

Very lucky to be in a well built car, I had a serious accident in a BMW a few years ago and escaped uninjured even though the car was wrecked.

Certainly fortunate that trains weren't running at the time and a bit concerning that the wall didn't prevent the car ending up on the track although it would be a massive undertaking to reinforce every wall that's near a railway line.

 

[Peter0124]

This would probably have been quite disruptive for train services had it happened just over 1km to the east at Ordsall Lane Junction, as there'd be essentially no route Manchester Piccadilly - Preston

 

[Krokodil]

This would probably have been quite disruptive for train services had it happened just over 1km to the east at Ordsall Lane Junction

I'm pretty sure that it was disruptive enough where it happened.

 

[Pinus contorta]

I'm pretty sure that it was disruptive enough where it happened.

When I first heard about it, i did wonder if it was terrorist activity.

 

[Pacef8]

May i just add there is no statement on the health condition of the driver or how he was taken to hospital . That must of been a difficult extraction.