The Rail Accident Investigation Branch has released a report into an incident where a Great Western Railway train did 100mph over the speed limit in Wiltshire.

On the 12th August, a GWR London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads travelled at 117mph through an Emergency Speed Restriction of 20mph near Dauntsey Wiltshire.

No injuries or damage occurred as a result of the speeding.

The ESR had been in place on the Down Main at Dauntsey since the 27th June 2020, with the normal line speed in the area of 125mph.

The restriction was for a track defect of around 100 metres, and the ESR was 30mph for freight trains only. The signs indicated the different speed restrictions (30/125 – 30mph for freight, 125 for passenger trains).

However, on the day of the incident, the weather was warm, and at 13:55, local staff imposed a restriction of 20mph for all trains on the line due to the rail temperature being too high.

In accordance with the rule book, trains were stopped and cautioned by the signaller until 15:52, when revised signage was put in place.

The first train over the section after the signs had been put into place was the 15:12 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads. The driver had booked on for duty at Paddington’s depot at 14:36 and was given a hard copy of a notice advising him of the current ESRs in force for the lines he would be driving over – this included the ESR at Dauntsey. He was aware of the ESR as he had driven over it several times in the past few days, but it didn’t require passenger trains to reduce speed.

Network Rail did not inform GWR of this new ESR until 16:33, and the driver had no means of knowing of the new ESR at Dauntsey and that he would need to reduce his speed accordingly.

The driver, therefore, took no action when the flashing ESR indicator came into view, and the automatic train protection (ATP) had not been modified to take into account the changes as they were not likely to be in effect for more than a few hours, so the driver received no warning that a reduced speed would be required.

When the driver saw the ESR board, he did not register that the 30mph had become 20mph. He also didn’t notice the absence of any 125 board below the 20, so assumed this had become displaced, so after a monetary brake application, the train continued at speed for another 37 seconds and another mile until the driver read the 20mph board where the ESR started.

At this point, the train was doing 117mph – the driver then made a full-service brake application. The trains speed reduced to 105 mph by the time it had cleared the affected section, and the driver reported the incident to the signaller, saying he believed some ESR signage was missing, but these were checked and was found to be correct.

The RAIB has completed their preliminary examination, but have decided not to carry out any further investigation. A similar incident happened back in 2018 on the East Coast Mainline at Sandy, which also covers topics similar to the incident at Dauntsey (you can read more on the Sandy report by clicking here).

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