News
Recent Major Incident
Although we do our utmost to prevent accidents and incidents they do sometimes happen. It is our job then to respond as quickly as possible. We are prepared and trained to deal with any incident.
North Rode Train Crash
"May I sincerely thank all involved in the rescue after the train crash at North Rode last Thursday, especially all the emergency services that came from as far as Manchester and Liverpool.” Local Resident *
What happened
On the 18th December 2008 an empty 4x4 rolled from the UPS depot onto the tracks at North Rode, Congleton and was struck at around 18.00 by the 17.10 southbound Deansgate to Stoke-On-Trent causing the train to derail. The vehicle was shunted onto another track and collided with the northbound 15.00 Bristol Temple Meades to Manchester Piccadilly service.
What we did
The first 999 call was made at 17.57, six minutes later the British Transport Police had put an emergency stop on all trains. By 18.14 the collision was declared as a Major Incident with Police and Fire Brigades on site just four minutes later. North West ambulance service sent 23 vehicles to the scene.
A successful outcome
Remarkably, none of the 111 passengers on board were seriously injured. Coach services were put on for passengers traveling to Manchester, the southbound passengers were taken to Macclesfield to catch other trains. The line was re-opened on 20 December 2008 after investigation, recovery, and repairs had been carried out.
* Quote taken from The Chronicle Newspaper article Praise for the rescuers on ‘terrible night' of rail crash