Cow crash chaos Jan 9 2003
By Staff Reporter, Birmingham Post
Passengers on a high-speed, inter-city train in the Midlands had a lucky escape after it hit a cow on the tracks.
The 15.45 service from Euston in London to Wolverhampton had to be towed back to Rugby after being severely damaged in the incident in Brandon, south of Coventry.
The line between London and Birmingham was blocked by the broken Virgin West Coast train, causing delays to following services.
A Virgin spokesman said: “There was a collision with a cow on the line and it damaged the locomotive quite severely.
“The train has now been recovered and services are returning to normal.”
He added that the cow had been killed in the accident. No passengers were injured although the driver, who slammed on the brakes at while travelling at over 100mph is said to be suffering from shock.
The spokesman said: “Network Rail has been upgrading the fencing on the West Coast Main Line but have been prioritising in urban areas where people might try to get on the line.
“It remains to be seen how this cow got on the the line but my guess is it must be a recent breech in the fence or we would have seen more than one by now.
“It is a matter for the Transport Police but it is possible that someone cut the fence although that is purely speculation at this point.”
The passengers on the broken train were transferred to another service on arrival in Rugby.
The Virgin spokesman said there had been “extensive disruption” and diversions on services out of Euston due to the incident, which happened around 5pm. The line was eventually cleared at around 8pm.
Trains between London and Wolverhampton were diverted via Stafford, adding an hour to their journey and two services - the
17.45 and the 18.45 London to Coventry trains - were cancelled.
posted by Charles at Friday, January 10, 2003
