RAIB to investigate incident at Rowlands Castle after MOM phoned wrong signal box

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch has announced that it is investigating an incident involving a Network Rail Mobile Operations Manager that was nearly hit by a train at Rowlands Castle.

On the 19th December 2020, at 19:14, a near-miss occurred at Rowlands Castle station between Petersfield and Havant and involved a non-stop passenger train and a Network Rail Mobile Operations Manager.

The Mobile Operations Manager, or MOM, was on the railway to get a bag off the line. He saw the train approaching, and managed to get onto the platform and out of the way of the train just 1 second before it passed through at 60 mph.

No one was injured, but both the MOM and train driver were distressed by the incident.

The RAIB has said that the MOM did not request trains through the station to be stopped and was not aware of the approaching train because he had contacted the wrong signaller to check whether any trains were approaching.

Instead of contacting the Havant Signalling Centre, which controls Rowlands Castle, the MOM contacted Petersfield signal box, which controls adjacent area on the approach to Rowlands Castle.

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Neither the signaller nor the MOM did not discuss that Rowlands Castle was not part of the area under the control area of the Petersfield signal box.

The investigation will look into the events leading up to the incident and a report will be published by the RAIB.

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