Category: RAIL

Rail authorities in India are investigating an incident where a freight train was able to travel more than 80 km without a driver. The train was pulling 53 wagons full of chip stones and began rolling downhill along the tracks at Kathua in Jammu, northern India. The train reached a speed of 100 km/h before it could be stopped. The train had reportedly stopped for a crew change in Kathua. The driver and assistant disembarked, and the train began to move. Official sources said that the driver may have forgotten to pull the handbrake before deboarding, though this has not been confirmed by the authorities.

A railroad crossing in St. Clair County, Alabama, reopened after a train derailed in Ragland on Thursday morning, February 8. The incident closed part of Highway 144. The incident happened around 2:30 a.m., according to James Brown, Ragland police chief. Chief Brown said loaded cars from the nearby cement plant were being moved when several cars left the tracks, flipped over and spilled cement onto the ground. No one was hurt.

A man went on a stabbing spree at 7:35 a.m. on March 2 at the Gare De Lyon station. This station operates domestic trains as well as those heading to Switzerland and Italy. One person suffered life-threatening injuries to the abdomen while two others were lightly wounded, according to Laurent Nunez, police prefect. A fourth person went into shock after witnessing the assaults. The suspect was overpowered by passersby before railway police arrived on the scene, the police source said. The perpetrator volunteered to police that he suffered from “psychiatric problems” and was carrying medicine, Nunez said.

A chemical fire caused by a train derailment in Kentucky has been extinguished. People had been encouraged to evacuate but now are able to return to their homes, according to rail operator CSX late last week. “The fire is completely out,” CSX spokesperson Bryan Tucker said in a statement. The train derailed on Wednesday November 23, at about 2:30 p.m. The incident occurred near Livingston, Kentucky. CSX worked to clear the train cars and material at the site. The derailment and spilled chemicals started a chemical fire earlier in the week and prompted evacuations in the small town. State officials said Friday they were monitoring the air for traces of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide, but so far there had been none detected at the derailment site or the nearby town of Livingston since Thursday morning. The fire was extinguished on Thursday. “We’re now able to get in and begin safely removing cars,” Joe McCann, director of emergency management and hazardous materials for CSX, said at a briefing Friday. He said an access road was built to reach the derailment area and the crashed train cars were removed.

Network Rail was fined £6.7m in the high court in Aberdeen after admitting guilt over a rail crash in which three people died. The driver of the train, Brett McCullough, 45, Donald Dinnie, 58 (the conductor), and a passenger, Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died in the derailment near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, on August 12 in 2020. It was described as the worst accident on Britain’s railways in 18 years. Debris had washed on to the track from a drainage system after heavy rain. The driver was not warned to reduce speed although the conditions had been reported. Admitting culpability helped reduce the fine from £10m.

A train derailment occurred on September 10 near Geseke, Germany, when one train collided with another train operating on the same track. The impact caused multiple carriages to derail, and passengers and cargo spilled out onto the tracks. The initial reports indicate that a communication breakdown between railway control centers played a role in the collision. The train driver died.

The head of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) wrote a letter saying inspectors found an alarming number of defects in Union Pacific’s freight cars and locomotives during a focused inspection in Nebraska this summer. The FRA performed focused inspections and “identified a concerning number of locomotives and freight cars with defects.

The Belt Railway Company of Chicago — based in Bedford Park, Illinois, which is the largest switching and terminal railroad in the U. S. — is investigating a ransomware data theft by the Akira Ransomware gang. The ransomware gang claimed to have stolen 85 GB of data. Christopher Steinway, general counsel of Belt Railway, told Recorded Future News that it recently became aware that “a threat actor group posted on its website that it had obtained certain company information. The event did not impact our operations. We have engaged a leading cybersecurity firm to investigate the incident and are working with federal law enforcement” Steinway added, “Our investigation remains ongoing.”

Thirty people were killed and at least 90 others were injured when the Hazara Express train derailed in Pakistan on Sunday, August 6, near the town of Multan. The train departed Karachi in the southern part of the country and was traveling to Havelian in the northern part of the country. Local workers, paramilitary troops and railway workers teamed up to pull the injured passengers from the wreckage. Bodies of the deceased were pulled out as well and taken to a hospital. The derailment caused the tracks from Karachi, both inbound and outbound, to be closed. A relief train was sent to assist, according to railways minister, Khawaja Saad Rafique.

The Brussels Airport bombers were found guilty of terrorist murder seven years after suicide bomb attacks that killed 32 people at the airport and also at a metro station. The attacks occurred in March 2016 and were perpetrated by a group of six men, several of whom were already convicted of taking part in the earlier Paris terror attacks. Salah Abdeslam was found guilty in a French trial of the Paris bomb and gun attacks that happened in November 2015. Although he denied involvement in the Brussels airport attack, he has now been convicted of murder and attempted murder in Belgium, too. Mohamed Abrini was also found guilty of both bombings. Abrini confessed to participating in the attacks as well as to preparing explosives for the bombings. In addition, four others were found guilty of terrorist murder: Oussama Atar, Osama Krayem, Ali El Haddad Asufi and Bilal El Makhoukhi. The attacks happened on March 22, 2016 when two bombs went off just before 8:00 a.m. at opposite ends of the departures hall at Zaventem airport. Sixteen people died from the attack. About an hour later, an additional bombing occurred on a train at Maelbeek metro station in Brussels. Hundreds were wounded and 16 others perished.