The “wrong sort” of railway platforms may have caused two separate incidents in which a baby and an elderly woman were tipped onto the tracks, according to a rail safety report.
The woman, in her seventies, was in a wheelchair when it rolled off the platform and on to the lines, while the baby was in a pushchair that rolled off, “turned 90 degrees and fell on to the track, narrowly missing the live conductor rail”, the report warns.
In both instances, the first at Southend Central in August and the other at Whyteleafe in Surrey last month, the platforms sloped towards the tracks instead of, by tradition, away from the edge. Rail safety chiefs have now launched a major investigation to establish whether other platforms have been built sloping towards the tracks and, if so, what the industry intends to do about it.
A spokesman for the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, the national watchdog, said: “Historically, guidance on station design has indicated the desirability of gradients on platforms falling away from the track.
“The RAIB’s investigation will examine the circumstances under which both of these platforms have gradients sloping towards the track and the extent to which the same situation occurs elsewhere”.
“It will review the extent to which the hazard is recognised by the railway industry and the steps taken to manage the risk.”
Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA, which represents station and booking office staff, said: “It is common sense to have a platform sloping uphill towards the train to prevent exactly this sort of incident.
“It is horrifying to think what could have happened in either case.”
Brakes on the wheelchair and the pushchair were not applied in either instance, according to the report.
A spokeswoman for Network Rail, which owns more than 2,500 stations, said: “We will, of course, co-operate in every way with the RAIB.”
