Passengers on the 18:31 train from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth in Wales were left terrified on Monday evening when the train they were on collided with a stationary train. One passenger was killed and fifteen others injured in the crash. Graphic designer Jonah Evans was one of the passengers on the train and recalls the moments leading up to the crash: “The driver comes running through the doors and shouts ‘brace yourselves, brace yourselves, we’re going to hit another train’.” Passengers had only seconds to prepare for impact. Evans described the aftermath of the crash as a “fever dream.”
The collision happened at around 7:30 PM BST on the Cambrian Line on a single track near Llanbrynmair in Powys. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has dispatched inspectors to the site and initial reports suggest that the speed of the train was approximately 24 km/h (15 mph) at the time of impact. The RAIB has said that low adhesion will be a focus of their investigation. Low adhesion occurs when a train’s brakes are applied and they slide along the top of the rail instead of gripping it. It is often caused by fallen leaves on the track or by damp weather.
One passenger, Tudor Evans, died in the crash. His friend, Iestyn Leyshon, said that the couple had just begun travelling after years of work and were returning from a holiday in Italy. Evans’s family has thanked the public for their kind messages of support and have asked for privacy.
Train crashes are relatively rare in the UK, and the National Rail website states that train travel “remains one of the safest modes of transport in Great Britain”. The last train crash in Wales occurred in 1991 inside the Severn Tunnel. A full report on the Aberystwyth crash is expected to take several months to be processed
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