News

Commuters rail against network

Thu February 23, 2012 5:53am

A SWITCH malfunction is believed to have caused a train derailment near the city yesterday morning, stranding those on board as well as hundreds of other commuters.

The Tonsley-line train came off the rails just before 8.30am about 100m short of Adelaide station platform, leaving 80 passengers stranded.

The Department of Planning Transport and Infrastructure confirmed there would be an internal investigation into the derailment but said a mechanical fault on the line was believed to be the cause.

The derailment comes after the Transport Department agreed this month to address safety issues which contributed to a head-on collision between passenger trains last February.

A transport department spokeswoman said that after yesterday's derailment, a warning sounded and the driver stopped the train but after a visual inspection of the line, he decided it was safe to proceed.

The train was removed from the line and rerailed before being inspected last night, she said.

AdelaideNow readers yesterday expressed frustration at the subsequent delays. One woman said her daughter was on her way to uni before the train she was on was turned back to Noarlunga.

"They were told they would have to find their own way to the city. No help from Adelaide Metro at all, no one telling them what buses would be available," she wrote.

Another reader said similar issues caused a Noarlunga train to be delayed minutes before the derailment. "We got in about 15 minutes late due to `switch' issues - so this obviously happened just after we arrived," the reader wrote."

Passengers aboard the derailed train were startled by the incident but said no one was hurt.

Lucy Reynolds said she had been worried the train was going to tip over. "It was just going and then it started rattling heaps and I thought it was going to turn over but it stopped straight away," she said.

Public Transport Services spokesman Peter Doggett said delays occurred as other trains were prevented from entering the station. "There have been some flow-on delays around because first of all we had to stop the trains in the yard, make a safe situation to get them off the train affected," he said.

Mr Doggett said the incident was unfortunate.