DERAILMENT AT PADDINGTON

Off the track: on departure from London on 20 August 2017 the rear power car of the 11.57 from Paddington to Penzance derailed at low speed adjacent to platform 2. There were no injuries. Rotten timber sleepers are understood to have been at the root of the derailment; repairs to this track were completed by 04.00 on 22 August, but checks on other tracks disrupted operations at Paddington in subsequent weeks. The event topped off a bad spell for Network Rail, coming after the derailment at Waterloo on 15 August (p30), along with a low-speed buffer stop collision at King’s Cross platform 9 on the same day and a freight train derailment at Ely the day before. Jamie Squibbs