April 30, 2018 | Susan Napier-Sewell

Monday Accidents & Lessons Learned: When There Is No Right Side of the Tracks

On Tuesday, February 28, 2017, a wall section began to collapse at the top of a cutting above a four-track railway line between the Liverpool Lime Street and Edge Hill stations in Liverpool, England. From approximately 5:30 pm until 6:02 pm, more than 188 tons of debris rained down from the embankment wall collapsing across all four tracks. The Liverpool Lime Street is the city’s main station, one of the busiest in the north of England.

With the rubble downing overhead power lines and damage to infrastructure, all mainline services to and from the station were suspended. The collapse brought trains to a standstill for three hours, with a necessary evacuation of three trains. Police, fire, and ambulance crews helped evacuate passengers down the tracks. Two of the trains were halted in tunnels. Passengers were stranded on trains at Lime Street station due to power outage resulting from the collapse. A passenger en route to Liverpool from Manchester Oxford Road reported chaos at Warrington station as passengers tried to find their way home.

A representative from Network Rail spoke about the incident, “No trains are running in or out of Liverpool Lime station after a section of trackside wall, loaded with concrete and cabins by a third party, collapsed sending rubble across all four lines and taking overhead wires with it. Early indications suggest train service will not resume for several days while extensive clear-up and repairs take place to make the location safe. More precise forecasts on how long the repairs will take will be made after daybreak tomorrow.”

Read more about the incident here.

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