Quote:
Originally Posted by denphone
TPWS has been installed throughout much of Britain’s rail network. Unfortunately, TPWS had not been installed here.
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No, but the trains on this line have AWS which while it does not provide for automatic braking when a train SPADs, it does issue an audible warning in the cab. Not just for red signals but for amber ones as well.
Unfortunately the findings so far released back up the informed speculation on all the trainspotters forums - namely that the first train’s driver identified a fault with AWS and stopped immediately to report it as per the rulebook. If the AWS fault had just been on his train, then the following train would still have had a correct audible AWS indication in the cab and even if the driver had not been able to see the signal ahead, would have known to slow down. The fact that the following train was near line speed when the driver braked suggests that AWS equipment had failed on the track itself, and led him to believe the upcoming signal was not at red. He will have applied the emergency brake when he could actually see the stationary train in front of him, by which time it was too late to avoid a collision.
If, as seems to be the case, the fault was with lineside equipment not correctly warning driver of signal aspects with an in-cab warning, then even if TPWS was installed it wouldn’t have worked.