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Glanrhyd disaster: Memories of train tragedy 30 years on

Thirty years ago a railway bridge near Llandeilo collapsed, plunging a passenger train into the River Towy and leaving four people dead. Glanrhyd bridge had been partially washed away in the swollen river before the accident, early on Monday 19 October 1987.

Three passengers and three staff escaped but the driver and three passengers drowned. BBC Radio Wales' Gilbert John, who reported from the scene, recalls his memories of the dramatic and tragic disaster.

October 1987 was a month of storms to remember. Mid-month there was the Great Storm, which devastated homes along the south coast of England in particular, with 100mph (160 km/h) winds scything down trees by the thousand.
But the Glanrhyd train disaster in Carmarthenshire, a few days later, was caused by the biblical quantities of rain which fell on south Wales, turning the River Towy into a raging torrent.

That was why, when the 5:27am Heart of Wales line train from Swansea to Shrewsbury set off on the morning of 19 October, there were rail engineers aboard to check the track after reports of flooding and damage.

The first bare details that the Glanrhyd bridge, between Llandeilo and Llandovery, had collapsed and a train had plunged into the river came with the radio headlines later that morning. But those early reports seemed reassuring - no immediate news of casualties.

I had set off from my home below Llandeilo only to be stopped by floodwater across the road north of the town.
As I stood there, a fire engine drove out of the floodwater and stopped with the crew jumping down to check the brakes.

I joined them to get more information and made the innocent comment: "Good news nobody's injured." They turned and sharply told me that four people were trapped in one of the carriages - almost certainly dead.

Flooding in the wake of the Great Storm left the River Towy a "raging torrent"

You have to remember that mobile phones were virtually non-existent in 1987. I ran to a nearby bungalow, hammered on the door and, once I'd explained the circumstances, was given permission by a rather startled housewife to use their phone. That first copy to the BBC newsroom in Cardiff was when the wider world learned the scale of the tragedy.

There were rescuers already at the scene; firemen, divers, police officers and others, including rail engineers. All were simply standing, looking at the tail end of the two-carriage train.

One carriage was still mainly on land, the second was twisted at 90 degrees in the river. Nobody could reach it.
The roof was barely above water and the roaring waters of the Towy were battering it and were clearly too ferocious to attempt any rescue.

Six people had escaped the initial plunge into the water. But we knew there were at least four people still in that carriage - the train driver, an elderly couple and a schoolboy, we learned later. But it was certain by that time they were already dead.

There was a grim frustration for all of us. The carriage was so close. These were trained rescuers desperate to save anyone who might still be alive but it would clearly have been suicide even to attempt it.
The memory alone brings back that sense of wanting to do something - even for me, the least qualified on that twisted rail line.

The days that followed saw more facts emerge and early suggestions of possible causes.
Was floodwater released from the Llyn Brianne reservoir partly responsible for the torrential river flow? That was quickly denied.

Why were there passengers on-board a train being used to survey a possibly dangerous line?

And, inevitably, there was the distraught reactions of relatives. In particular, those of the family of the schoolboy Simon Penny, who had been going back to school. We were told later, he had almost certainly stayed on the train to help others.

There were the related stories. How Llanelli and Wales rugby star Carwyn Davies, who farmed nearby, had been out early to check his animals in the flooded fields and had seen the collapsed bridge. He had been heading back to raise the alarm when he heard the train coming down the track and plunging into the river.

Then came the questions in the House of Commons and, as time passed, the full inquest into the deaths. The swollen river, it emerged, had scoured beneath the foundations of the bridge, and left it fatally weakened. Ultimately, changes were introduced to prevent such a disaster ever recurring.

Soon after, the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana travelled to Carmarthen to visit the areas hit by the floods, and the name of the latest tragedy - the Glanrhyd Bridge disaster - entered our history books.

Scouring of bridge piers is still something that worries the NR's structures engineers

Lamington Viaduct probe uncovers lapsed safety system

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The Lamington Viaduct carries the West Coast Main Line over the River Clyde

An investigation into why trains were allowed over a badly damaged bridge has found that a safety system for at-risk structures was no longer in use.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch looked at why the Lamington Viaduct in South Lanarkshire was used when it was close to collapse after storms in 2015.

It found a safety system for over 100 bridges in Scotland had lapsed after organisational changes at Network Rail.

The rail body has been told to improve its safety and management procedures.

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Flood water undermined parts of the pier supporting the viaduct

The Victorian-built Lamington Viaduct was severely damaged by flood waters during Storm Frank on New Year's Eve 2015.

It later emerged that a train had been allowed to cross at high speed despite the viaduct being "on the brink of failure".

An engineering assessment discovered that floodwater had scoured out much of the foundations of the second pier.

The viaduct, which carries the West Coast Main Line over the River Clyde, was closed for major repair work and did not reopen until late February 2016.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) investigation into the train crossings has now discovered major flaws in the bridge-monitoring and safety assessment programme.

The RAIB report states that a driver reported a defect on the track on the morning of 31 December 2015 and trains were told to cross at low speed while a maintenance team from track operator, Network Rail, was sent to the site. The team found "no significant track defects" and the speed restriction was lifted, but when the 05:57 Crewe to Glasgow service passed through at about 110mph, they noticed "large track movements" and immediately put a speed restriction in place.

They noticed the bridge's central pier was damaged by scour - removal of the riverbed beneath the bridge foundation - and closed the line. A stone had fallen out of the pier and there were large cracks above the gap. Divers later found a hole one metre deep under the foundations.

Investigators found the bridge was on a list of vulnerable structures which needed special precautions during floods, including monitoring river levels and closing the line if the water reached a certain level.

The RAIB report stated: "However, this process was no longer in use and there was no effective scour risk mitigation for over 100 of the most vulnerable structures across Scotland. This had occurred, in part, because organisational changes within Network Rail had led to the loss of knowledge and ownership of some structures issues."

Simon French, Chief Inspector of Rail Accidents, said: "It is of particular concern to me that the vulnerability of this structure to scour had been identified at least 10 years previously. Despite this, insufficient action had been taken to protect the piers from scour or to monitor the integrity of the viaduct at times of high water flow. The continued operation of trains over this high-risk structure, despite a previous report from a driver of a rough ride, provides vivid evidence that the risk of scour was not generally appreciated by those involved."

Mr French added: "Of even more concern was our finding that there were no effective scour mitigation measures in place for over 100 of the most vulnerable structures across Scotland. We discovered that a previous process for managing scour risk on Scotland route had fallen into disuse, at least in part due to organisational change, and that this had not been recognised by Network Rail."

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Major repair work was completed by February 2016

The RAIB asked Network Rail to take action on the management of scour risk as well as its response to defect reports affecting structures over water and the management of control-centre procedures.

A Network Rail spokesman said the track operator would "carefully review the findings" of the RAIB report. "The safety of passengers, and rail workers, is of vital importance to Network Rail and we have already made significant changes to our management and maintenance of scour-risk structures in Scotland since Lamington," he said. "We have invested over £3m so far this year to reduce scour-risk at high priority structures and have carried out 277 specialist underwater examinations to assess the foundations of bridges ahead of this winter.

"We have also identified 50 bridge sites where we will roll-out telemetry equipment, to help monitor the impact of flooding on the network and to improve early identification of potential issues."