Window smashed on train by air gun pellet or stone - East Anglia, 14 March 2010

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) press release:

British Transport Police (BTP) has issued a renewed appeal for information after a train window was smashed on Sunday, 14 March 2010.

A ^2,000 reward has been issued by National Express East Anglia (NXEA^▸ (National Express East Anglia)) for anyone who provides information that leads to the conviction of whoever was responsible.

At around 5.20pm a conductor onboard the 16.00 Norwich to Colchester service reported that a train window had been smashed by an unknown object.

Sergeant Paolo Boggi, investigating officer, said: ^The impact caused the window to shatter and although no one was injured as a result, passengers on-board were understandably shaken by what happened.

^Local reports have suggested that the incident was caused by the firing of an air-gun and while this is possible, we are also not ruling out the fact that it may have been caused by the throwing of stones or another hard object.^

He added: ^Thankfully incidents like these are rare but throwing any object at a fast moving train is an extremely dangerous thing to do and potentially endangers the safety of passengers on-board. I would encourage anyone with information to come forward and help us with our enquiry into what was potentially a very serious incident.^

As part of the enquiry, BTP officers are working closely with colleagues from NXEA, who have offered a cash reward to anyone who can help police identify those responsible.

Andy Sanders, Head of Safety for National Express East Anglia, said: ^This was a dangerous and reckless act of vandalism that could have had far more serious consequences. We want the people responsible to be brought to justice and we will continue to support our colleagues at the British Transport Police by helping them to identify those responsible.^

Now, I know that particular incident occurred way outside our FGW^▸ (First Great Western) area, but I was interested to see, from the pictures in that press release, the amount of damage done to a train window by (allegedly) either an air gun pellet or a stone. See http://www.btp.presscentre.com/Photo-Library/Window-damage-1-141e.aspx and http://www.btp.presscentre.com/Photo-Library/Window-damage-2-141f.aspx

Would that have been laminated glass?

[readytostart]

Guessing this is toughened but not laminated glass, the windows that could realistically be broken with a hard blast from a window hammer.
Was in Crewe a couple of months back to do some shunting (no double entendre intended) and in the back sidings of the station there was a LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) 350 with a load of air pellet punctures along the side and cab windows, and while the outer skins were shattered none of the windows had gone right through. (I'm guessing the train had been targetted when stabled and therefore at closer range than a standard 'drive-by').

[inspector_blakey]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s refurb put laminated glass in all the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) windows, but as RTS says the shattering pattern of the NXEA^▸ (National Express East Anglia) window (lots of little bits, none of them dangerously sharp) would seem to indicate that toughened glass is still installed in their stock.