Piccadilly Line train derailment

Just listening to the radio while blogging to learn that a Piccadilly Line tube has been de-railed at Hammersmith at 9.25pm on Friday. As regular readers of this blog know, I get the Piccadilly Line train from Hammersmith every day, so feeling quite freaky that I could have been on it. I was due to have gone out this evening and my friend had to cancel at the last minute. I would have certainly faced the knock on effect of the line being closed when I rolled out of the pub.

Fortunately, no one was hurt as the train appeared to be going slowly.

According to the BBC:

A London Underground spokesman: "There was a very low speed derailment on a Piccadilly Line train.

"There were no reported injuries. As far as we understand at this time only the last wheels on the last carriage came off.

"We don't know the cause of the derailment. There will be a full investigation."

How this will affect the Piccadilly Line, we'll have to wait and see. The derailment and crash on the Central Line in January caused actual injuries to 32 passengers and then months of havoc on the line itself as large proportions of the line remained closed. The tube paid millions in compensation to passengers whose journeys were totally screwed up.

Apparently part of the track at Piccadilly in that area was badly rusted and then snapped. Good job, as I travel on this part of the line every working day.

In the light of the recent report about passenger overcrowding only issued two days ago (see my blog entry) the London Underground is certainly going to be in the spotlight again.

This is the first accident to happen since the tube was privatised so it's clear there's going to be a major investigation here and rightly so.

For more on the derailment see the various reports from Google News.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Saturday, October 18, 2003 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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