Eurostar goes on wrong line

A high-speed Eurostar train with nearly 500 passengers on board sparked a full-scale emergency after a signal error directed it on to the wrong tracks.

Instead of heading for the Waterloo International terminal the train from Paris was directed on to lines serving Victoria.

Rail chiefs today ordered an investigation into the apparent signalling blunder which terrified Eurostar passengers who said it could have ended in disaster.

The minute the driver realised he was heading in the wrong direction he hit the brakes, plunging the hi-tech Eurostar, capable of 186mph, into darkness.

A Eurostar spokesman said the driver had gone through a correct green signal but was unable to explain why the train was then directed towards the wrong station.

Yet again, a set of track points will be at the centre of the safety inquiry. Investigators will look at whether they were set in the wrong direction, whether the green signal should have been at red until the points changed, or whether human error or faulty equipment was to blame.

Railtrack will be interviewing the signaller and the Eurostar driver today to find out exactly what went wrong.

The drama last night, which again highlights passenger fears over rail safety, came hours after Transport Secretary Stephen Byers was condemned in an official report by MPs for his inability to improve the ailing network.

In the wake of the disaster at Potters Bar, in which seven people died when a set of track points broke, the Eurostar spokesman confirmed that inspections of the track at the centre of the latest incident would take place today.

With the Eurostar brought to a stop, the 446 passengers were forced to wait while the driver walked the quartermile length of the 18-carriage train before he was able to drive it back through the signal and onto the correct track.

The incident happened on a complex section of track which forms part of the junction at Clapham, near Wandsworth Road mainline station.The Eurostar eventually arrived at 10.46pm, 25 minutes late.

One of the passengers, Rick Gekoski, said the incident could have been very serious. "We were told the signalman had sent the train in the wrong direction and it was heading towards Victoria Station when we should have been going to Waterloo."

A Railtrack spokesman said today: "There was absolutely no safety issue involved here. An error by a signalman sent the train on to the wrong track."

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