Adlington
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RAIB has published a safety digest on this incident: pfd and html
Given that the confusion was caused by the workers thinking they were in a location different to the intended one, I find the Network Rail's position deeply worrying:At around 23:50 hrs on the night of 12 December 2018, two track workers narrowly avoided being struck by an express passenger train that was travelling at about 100 mph (161 km/h) on the Midland Main Line near the village of Sundon, Bedfordshire. The track workers quickly moved clear to avoid being struck, having been alerted to the train’s approach when the driver sounded the warning horn.
The near miss occurred because the track workers were walking along a line open to traffic in the mistaken belief they were on a line which was closed to traffic. This confusion arose because the track workers had unintentionally accessed the railway at the wrong location for the planned work.
Access point signage, including the access point name and track layout, has been fitted to some access points. However, Network Rail has stated that it does not intend to do this at all existing access points and, in 2010, informed the Office of Rail and Road (ORR, the safety regulator for Britain’s railways) that:
‘A cost benefit analysis had been carried out. It showed that it was not cost effective to retrofit signs at all access points. However it was considered that it would be cost effective to fit such signs at new build access points’.