Exposed: railway near-misses at 100mph

There are new fears about the safety of Britain's railways this weekend after a spate of serious incidents. In several cases the circumstances of earlier disasters were replicated, in accidents that could have killed and injured many passengers.

Rail and safety authorities are now investigating more than 10 safety-related accidents since early October,. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is considering whether to prosecute two private contractors and Network Rail, the successor to Railtrack, after the derailments of a high-speed train at West Ealing and a freight train near Rotherham.

Over the past 11 weeks there has also been a low-speed collision at Chichester, a runaway locomotive ran from Edinburgh Waverley Station without a driver for three miles, a tunnel collapsed over a Scottish main line, an oversized engineering train demolished a bridge in North Yorkshire, and an electric train was sent on to a line with no wires in Hertfordshire.

There was also a 50 per cent rise in signals passed at danger (Spads) in October.

On 24 November, 500 passengers on the Swansea-to- Paddington express miraculously escaped serious injury when their train derailed at 100mph after a rail joint maintained by the infrastructure contractor, Amey, failed.

The investigation is focusing on why two metal "fishplates" both split in half, leaving a fragment of track jamming a crossing.

A week later, at the same site, another First Great Western express travelling at between 60mph and 80mph struck a piece of debris on the trackside, rupturing a diesel fuel tank, spilling fuel.

But an earlier and little reported incident on 10 November, in which a freight train and two wagons travelling through Aldwarke Junction near Rotherham were derailed, has particularly alarmed rail industry experts.

The line was being repaired by the contractors Jarvis, already under investigation for its role in the fatal crash at Potters Bar in May. Even though a section of track was missing, it was apparently cleared for use leading to the empty coal train derailing.

The accident, which could have led to many deaths had a passenger train been passing, has forced Network Rail to overhaul its safety rules for handing repaired rail lines back into use.

Louise Christian, the solicitor representing five of the seven families bereaved by the Potters Bar crash, was "very, very concerned" that these incidents were further evidence of the strains affecting the beleaguered rail network.

Her anxieties were echoed by Nigel Harris, managing editor of the respected industry journal Rail. He said the Aldwarke incident could have been "much, much worse than it was ... Somewhere down the line, there has been a real breakdown in communications between Jarvis and Network Rail."

Network Rail, which is due to take greater control of track maintenance next year, said the incidents were coincidental and unrelated.

However, a spokesman for the HSE said that even though these incidents had different causes and were not connected, they "highlighted common themes such as poor procedures, weak standards and possibly even sheer carelessness".

Diary of disasters

3 October: Train runs away and collides with another at Chichester

8 October: Train splits apart at Radford Junction, Notts, after short circuit causes uncoupling

9 November: Tunnel collapses on main line at Falkirk

10 November: Freight train derailed after running on to missing track near Rotherham

11 November: Chemical train derails in Warrington siding

12 November: Electric train signalled over line with no wires in Radlett, Herts

12 November: Out-of-gauge crane knocks down bridge, North Yorkshire

13 November: Main line loco runs out of control, Edinburgh

24 November: Train derails at 100mph on broken track in Ealing, west London

1 December: Express ruptures fuel tank hitting debris, Ealing