A rail passenger died and 15 people were being treated for injuries in hospital after two trains collided on a rural line in mid-Wales on Monday evening.
Witnesses described how people were thrown to the floor of a train and pictures of the scene showed part of one of the carriages crumpled in the impact.
Investigators were at the scene near the village of Llanbrynmair in Powys on Tuesday morning to try to establish why the trains had collided on the line, a single-track section.
The incident took place close to a passing loop on the largely single-track Cambrian line, where one train should stop and the other proceeds at low speed on a small loop of track. It appears that the train that should have stopped was unable to do so, but the collision was slow enough that neither train derailed.
A multi-agency investigation was under way. Leaves on the line would be one possible avenue of investigation. Network Rail spends millions clearing autumn leaves from lines because they are the equivalent of black ice on roads.
It is believed that some passengers suffered broken bones, although police said their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing.
Passenger Jonah Evans, 25, said: “There was a train that was stopped and the other train couldn’t stop. And the driver couldn’t get out the way with a train in front. The driver ran in and sat on a chair and said brace yourselves, we’re about to hit a train. Someone lost their teeth, cracked ribs. Because the driver told us it was happening, we could kind of get ready.”
Anthony Hurford, who had been travelling to Shrewsbury, told the BBC: “The word that keeps coming to my head is just brutal really. Just going from, I don’t know how fast we were going, maybe 40, 50, 60 miles an hour, to nothing in the blink of an eye.
“Somehow my body bent the leg of a table and ripped it off its bolts attached to the wall. Suddenly I was on the floor with my laptop strewn ahead of me wondering what the hell had happened.
“We tried to stop at the lights. At the top of the hill there’s a signal that I guess would’ve been a passing place and for whatever reason the train wouldn’t stop.
“There must’ve been 30, 40 people from fire [service], there was British Transport Police who had come from Birmingham, there were three helicopters, people had come from north and south Wales, as far as I’m aware. I was checked by three or four different medics.”
A man living close to the railway line in the village of Talerddig told how he and his wife heard a loud bang and a grinding noise as they sat down for their evening meal.
Peter Carson, 67, said: “The noise lasted a few seconds. We have a lot of military aircraft going over so at first I thought it was a plane in trouble. I now realise it was the sound of the trains hitting the brakes in the collision.”
Plaid Cymru councillor Elwyn Vaughan said the single track that runs past the village gets clogged up with leaves. But he said: “I have been told that a dedicated leaf machine went through at lunchtime [on Monday] so that raises the question about what has happened here.
“People on the train have described a sliding sensation and there is a steep incline on that section of line. If you started to slide it would be difficult to stop.”
A joint statement from Network Rail and Transport for Wales said: “At 7.29pm on Monday 21 October, two TfW trains were involved in a low-speed collision near Llanbrynmair in Powys, mid-Wales.
“Sadly, one passenger has passed away, and a number of other people are being treated for injuries at nearby hospitals.
“The Cambrian railway east of Machynlleth will be closed while specialist teams continue their investigations.”
Emergency services, including the Welsh ambulance service, Mid and West Wales fire service, Dyfed Powys police and the HM Coastguard, have been working alongside railway workers at the scene.
The transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said: “Safety on our railways is my absolute priority and we are working at pace to understand what happened and how we can better prevent it going forward.”
The first minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan, said: “My thoughts are with all those involved in the rail incident in Powys.”
According to Network Rail, leaf fall on the tracks every autumn can lead to a slippery layer on the rail “equivalent to black ice on roads”.
Fourteen people were injured in a train collision in Salisbury in October 2021 after engineering work delayed the cleaning of rails. One of the trains skidded on leaves.
