300 led to safety as train derails

Thousands of rail commuters and mourners travelling to London for the Queen Mother's funeral today experienced long delays after a train derailed at Charing Cross station.

Packed services stacked up outside the central London terminus with other trains diverted to Cannon Street and Victoria or stopped short at London Bridge.

The derailment of the eight-carriage Charing Cross to Hastings train last night blocked the two main Kent Coast platforms at Charing Cross.

Engineers said that they would not have the tracks cleared until tomorrow. The two end carriages of the eight-car train came off the track as it was leaving the platform at about 15mph. There were no injuries but more than 300 passengers had to be led to safety.

Inspector Gary Young of the British Transport Police said that although the carriages had come off the track they had stayed upright.

Ambulances were called but were not needed and there were no reports of injury. The train would have crossed a set of points at the end of the platform but it is not known if a track or train fault caused the incident. A spokeswoman for Connex South Eastern said that a full investigation, together with Railtrack, had begun into the derailment.

She said: "At the moment it is not clear what the problem was. We are looking at all possibilities. Some trains are being diverted to Victoria or London Bridge stations."

The front four carriages were removed during the night and work continued today to remove the back section - clearly visible to commuters arriving at adjacent platforms this morning.

Because it was the end of the train which came off, driver fault is not likely to be the cause.

Instead investigators are focusing their attention on a possible track defect. They will want to know if the points, for whatever reason, may have moved while the train was passing over the top.

They will also examine the 40-year old slam door train to see if an axle or wheel problem led to the derailment.

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