Rail bosses face the prospect of manslaughter charges after a damning report by investigators revealed the shocking safety lapses that caused the fatal Cumbria rail crash.

Network Rail also faces potentially record punitive fines - running into millions of pounds - for its stewardship of the track on which the disaster happened.

In a clear admission of responsibility, Network Rail chief executive John Armitt delivered an unprecedented, immediate and unconditional apology for the "failure" of the state of the track where the fatal accident happened - just minutes after the damning report was released.

A faulty set of points was the "immediate cause" of the fatal Cumbria train derailment, said the interim accident report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.

Vital parts needed to hold the track together were missing or broken when the 95mph Virgin express train - carrying 111 passengers and four staff - hit the points which de-railed it, leaving one woman pensioner dead and scores of passengers injured. One of three stretcher bars - that keep moving rails a set distance apart - was missing, the other two were fractured. At least one was broken before the crash.

A series of key locking bolts were also missing. As a result, the London to Scotland Virgin Pendolino tilting train moving over the tracks could not follow its proper path and derailed at Grayrigg on Friday evening.

There was also evidence that the last scheduled visual inspection of the track on February 18 by Network Rail - the infrastructure company responsible for the track - did not take place, the RAIB report said.

The tragedy, which has rocked the Government, is a near carbon-copy repeat of the Potters Bar tragedy of five years ago and - amid calls for a public inquiry - has led critics to question what if any lessons have been learned.

Family of the 84-year-old victim, Margaret Masson, called for criminal prosecution to be brought.

Her niece Connie Leese, 59, said: "I would like to see whoever is responsible for this to be prosecuted because it is human error and mistakes like this cannot be allowed to happen again."

"I'm so angry and upset. I just have this massive sense of frustration knowing that if the line was regularly checked they would have seen the parts were missing and my aunt would still be alive."

Solicitor Louise Christian who has represented victims of the Ladbroke Grove, Hatfield, and Potters Bar rail disasters said: "There will have to be a criminal investigation and manslaughter will have to be considered."

However, she said that under the current law, it was difficult to make a corporate manslaughter or even a manslaughter charge stick. In previous rail disasters, charges against executives and managers have been subsequently dropped.

But Deputy Chief Constable Andy Trotter from the British Transport Police said criminal charges could be brought. "Witnesses are being interviewed. And in due course, consideration may be given to submitting a report to the Crown Prosecution Service," he said.

About 15 people - including four track inspectors, a signal man, and various Network Rail employees and managers, are being interviewed.

The stinging report means the investigation by police and accident investigators has switched squarely to maintenance - which is now solely the responsibility of Network Rail.

Labour's recent decision to run the railways directly from Whitehall - in what some critics have described as a partial re-nationalisation - means ministers also now find themselves in directly in the political firing line.

Network Rail was specifically set up by the Government to run the tracks after former Transport Secretary Stephen Byers pulled the plug on its predecessor Railtrack - on grounds of cost and safety.

He replaced it with not-for dividend Network Rail which acts to all intents and purposes like a Government quango.

In an ununprecedented and swift reaction, Network Rail chief executive John Armitt said: "Network Rail is devastated to conclude that the condition of the set of points at Grayrigg caused this terrible accident.

"We accept the RAIB report in all respects. We would like to apologise to all the people affected by the failure of the infrastructure."

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson said he took his hat off to NR "for taking it on the chin" and that the report showed the strength of the Pendolino carriages which did not break up in the crash.

Virgin train driver Iain Black - who has been hailed a hero for his actions in trying to control the train - last night paid tribute to the emergency services and said he was "distraught" that somebody had died.

And the four grandchildren of the woman who died - Margaret "Peggy" Masson - paid tribute to their "generous, loving nan".

Her daughter and son-in-law Margaret Langley, 61, and Richard Langley, 63, were also injured in the crash, and are in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

The RAIB's initial findings show that the probable cause of the Cumbria derailment is similar to that of the May 2002 Potters Bar derailment, which claimed seven lives. At Potters Bar there were nuts missing from a set of points and the lock stretcher bar fractured.

The immediate cause of the Cumbria accident was the condition of the stretcher bar arrangement at the points - known as Lambrigg.

The Virgin train could not follow the correct route across the tracks as it went over this set of points and "climbed over both switch rails and then ran into a derailed state".

The train travelled a further 600 metres and came to rest on the side of a railway embankment.

There was no evidence the signals, the condition of the train or the way it was being driven had contributed to the accident, the report said.

Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander said a final report into the crash would take "some months to prepare" But he said: "If in the course of their investigations the investigators discover something which needs to be done to improve safety, it will be done immediately."

But Shadow transport secretary Chris Grayling said there had been "operational failure within NR and this must be addressed as a matter of urgency."

Bob Crow, general secretary of transport union the RMT, said: "There are frightening similarities between Grayrigg and the Potters Bar crash in 2002. The Government has shamefully resisted calls for a public inquiry into Potters Bar. Nothing less than a full public inquiry will do."

See also:

Rail crash lessons 'not learned'

Press Association: February 26, 2007

The fatal Cumbria train derailment shows that lessons have not been learned since the Potters Bar crash nearly five years ago, it has been claimed.

A faulty set of points was the "immediate cause" of Friday evening's accident at Grayrigg, near Kendal, an interim accident report said, prompting calls for a public inquiry.

One of three stretcher bars - which keep moving rails a set distance apart - was missing, the other two were fractured and there were bolts missing, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) found.

Louise Christian, the solicitor representing the families of those killed at Potters Bar in May 2002, said the circumstances of the earlier accident were "incredibly similar". She called for a joint public inquiry into the two crashes, focusing on the issue of railway maintenance, to find out "why the lessons haven't been learnt". "I don't think it's good enough for the Government to sit on its hands again as it did over Potters Bar," she said.

The RAIB report said the points failure on Friday meant the London to Scotland Virgin Pendolino tilting train moving over the tracks could not follow its proper path and derailed. There was also evidence that the last scheduled visual inspection of the track on February 18 by Network Rail (NR) - the infrastructure company responsible for the track - did not take place.

Rail unions also called for a public inquiry into the accident, in which an 84-year-old woman died in hospital after the crash and 22 others needed hospital treatment.

The RAIB's initial findings show that the probable cause of the Cumbria accident is similar to the cause of the May 2002 Potters Bar derailment, which claimed seven lives.

At Potters Bar there were nuts missing from a set of points and the lock stretcher bar fractured.

The report said the immediate cause of the accident was the condition of the stretcher bar arrangement at the points - known as Lambrigg. The Virgin train could not follow the correct route across the tracks as it went over this set of points and "climbed over both switch rails and then ran into a derailed state".

There was no evidence the signals, the condition of the train or the way it was being driven had contributed to the accident, the report said. There was also no evidence that the bolts on the points had been wrenched free.

See also:

Second train 'minutes away' from hitting crash wreckage

Edinburgh Evening News: 26 Feb 2007
BILL JACOBS

A SECOND train was just minutes from disaster as it narrowly avoided ploughing into the Cumbria rail crash wreckage, it emerged today.

A train travelling from Scotland to England managed to stop just a couple of hundred yards from where the Glasgow-bound Virgin Pendolino left the track on Friday night.
Click to learn more...

Had it hit the wreckage the death and injury toll of one fatality and six serious injuries would have been far worse.

The RMT union revealed the lucky escape as it was confirmed that the crash investigation would focus on a pair of emergency points to the south of the scene of the accident.

With disruption between Carlisle and Preston and Lancaster likely to continue for more than a week, initial reports suggest that crucial bolts had come loose from the points used to divert trains on to the other track during maintenance. This is a chilling echo of what happened at the Potters Bar rail crash outside London in May 2002.

Investigators now doubt that sabotage was responsible although police are looking at claims by the Scottish National Liberation Army that they were looking to cause chaos on Anglo-Scottish rail lines in the near future.

But the news that a second train could have hit the wreckage will cause most alarm at the top of the rail industry.

John Tilley of the RMT rail union said that the second passenger train was minutes away from hitting the coaches on the track at Grayrigg near Oxenholme in the Lake District.

He said: "Lucky it stopped a couple of hundred yards up the track when the driver was alerted to the crash.

"But there was literally minutes in it. There could have been carnage."

However, while the state of the points is the focus of the investigation, the state of the new Virgin Pendolino train has been praised.

The safety features and strong construction of the train is said by experts to have saved further casualties.

And it is expected to be fit to return to service after repairs.

In Friday's accident on the packed 5.15pm London Euston to Glasgow train, 84-year-old Margaret Masson died, her daughter Margaret Langley, 61, and son-in-law, Richard, 63, were among six serious injuries and five of the other 60 hurt are still in hospital in Lancashire and Cumbria.

The driver of the express, Ian Black, is recovering in hospital after being hailed as a hero for staying in his cab to control the engine of the train as carriages jackknifed around him.

Already more than 700 checks have been completed on points across the UK rail network but two signal technicians responsible for checking the points at Grayrigg not far from Kendal are among several Network Rail workers due to be interviewed by police and investigators.

The track was inspected three weeks ago, Network Rail's chief executive John Armitt revealed today, but should have been checked at least once if not twice since.

These weekly checks take place visually and there is a full mechanical survey every 13 weeks.

But Mr Armitt today said he was confident that proper checks had taken place and that the Network Rail staff conducting them were fully qualified and able to do the job properly.

Today's report will not draw firm conclusions but will make immediate safety recommendations, indicate the initial assessments of what happened and give a direction for the inquiry to continue in the future.

See also:

Fatal crash was caused by blunders in rail track maintenance

The Times: February 27, 2007
Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

British Transport Police are conducting a criminal investigation after Network Rail admitted that a maintenance error was almost certainly to blame for Friday’s fatal train crash in Cumbria.

A key component in a set of points where the Virgin train was derailed was missing at the time of the accident and vital bolts were not in place, an interim report has said.

Network Rail also failed to carry out a scheduled visual inspection of the points six days before last Friday’s crash at Grayrigg, in which an 84-year-old woman died and five people were seriously injured.

The company admitted responsibility and apologised to the 115 people on board the train and the families of Margaret Masson, the dead woman, and the injured.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said that a stretcher bar, one of four which keeps the rails a safe distance apart, was missing and bolts were missing from two remaining bars. The fourth bar had probably broken before the crash. The faults meant that there was nothing to prevent the outer arm of the points, which switch trains from one track to another, from closing against the main rail. The wheels of the train, which was travelling at 90mph, were forced into a narrowing channel and sprang off the rails.

A rail industry source said that the missing stretcher bar had probably been removed some time before the crash after being found broken. Whoever removed it should have immediately informed the control room and a 20mph speed limit should have been imposed on the line until it was replaced.

The cause of the crash has uncanny similarities to the Potters Bar derailment in May 2002, when seven people died after bolts came loose on stretcher bars on a set of points.

Network Rail said that it was trying to find out exactly what adjustments had been made to the points in the past few weeks. But the company said that, under industry rules, it could not speak to its maintenance team in the area until they had been interviewed by the RAIB.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “The most likely conclusion we can draw is that it is a failure in the maintenance of these points and we would like to apologise to everyone involved. We are absolutely devastated that this happened on our watch.”

He was unable to say why the inspection scheduled for SundayFebruary 18 had failed to take place. The last visual inspection, undertaken by two workers, was on Sunday, February 11.

The points, which were rarely used, were last serviced on February 3. A special high-speed train that measures the condition of the track had passed over the points on Wednesday. The RAIB is inspecting video footage from a camera under the train to see if the faults were present then.

The report said there was no evidence that the bolts had been “wrenched free” and the indications were that the points “were the immediate cause of the derailment”.

John Armitt, chief executive of Network Rail, said he did not believe the faults with the points were the result of sabotage. He added: “When more detailed findings are available, we will consider them carefully, and learn any lessons that need to be learnt. We will also, at that time, consider any action that might need to be taken as a result.”

Safety check

90mph Speed of train when it crashed

20mph Speed restriction that should have been put in place when stretcher bar was removed

12 Number of days between last inspection and crash

700 Number of special inspections carried out by Network Rail over the weekend