From my limited experience in handling a liability scheme for rail ops..

The signals are 1 mile apart.

Normally the system would have more than one signal between trains allowing for amber warnings to slow down but as stopped train was emergency quite likely that second driver only had green and then red.

With green speed was 72 mph. Seeing red signal driver probably immediately applies brakes but is travelling 400 yards in 10 seconds.

Stopping distance of train would possibly be more than 1/2 mile even with emergency braking which has to account for passenger safety and has to be managed.

Stopped train was probably not at signal making available space less than 1 mile.

Probably nothing that driver could do.

Train safety has been vastly improved over recent years but it looks like this may be a result of over compensation since Ladbroke Grove/Potters Bar etc meaning that the driver of first train could not override the AWS braking and crawl to the safety of the next signal/station.

But as with everyone else I have no knowledge and as the scheme ended many years ago I have no updated knowledge on AWS etc.

Posted By: Ruttles on June 24th 2026 at 17:06:59

Message Thread

Reply to Message

In order to add a post to the WotB Message Board you must be a registered WotB user.

If you are not yet registered then please visit the registration page. You should ensure that their browser is setup to accept cookies.

Log in