Person hit by train at Reading West - 27 October 2011

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From FGW^▸ (First Great Western) live updates:

Line incident

Line problem: at Reading West.

Owing to a person hit by a train at Reading West all lines are blocked. Impact: Train services running through this station may be delayed at short notice. Disruption is expected until 20:30 27/10. Customer Advice: Train services which operate to and from Reading via Reading West to and from Basingstoke, Newbury, Bedwyn, Westbury and the West of England will be subject to cancellation, delay and short notice alteration.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 19:47

Service incidents

16:57 Plymouth to London Paddington due 20:39
This train has been revised. It will call additionally at: Swindon. It will no longer call at: Pewsey and Newbury. This is due to a person hit by a train.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 19:27

18:53 Newbury to London Paddington due 19:54
This train will be terminated at Theale at 19:06. This train will no longer call at Reading and London Paddington. This is due to a person hit by a train.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 19:34

19:37 Basingstoke to Reading due 20:01
This train will be cancelled. This is due to a person hit by a train.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 19:31

19:55 Bedwyn to London Paddington due 21:07
This train will be terminated at Newbury at 20:12. This train will no longer call at Thatcham, Theale, Reading and London Paddington. This is due to a person hit by a train.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 19:34

19:55 Newbury to Reading due 20:27
This train will be cancelled. This is due to a person hit by a train.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 19:31

19:57 Newbury to Bedwyn due 20:17
This train will be cancelled. This is due to a person hit by a train.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 19:31

20:04 Reading to Redhill due 21:30
This train will be cancelled. This is due to a person hit by a train.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 19:47

20:33 Bedwyn to Reading due 21:22
This train will be cancelled. This is due to a person hit by a train.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 19:31

21:35 Redhill to Reading due 23:01
This train will be cancelled. This is due to a person hit by a train.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 19:47

[bobm]

I assume the two cancellations on the North Downs Line are because crew have been displaced.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Update, from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) live updates:

Line incident

Line problem: at Reading West.

Owing to a person hit by a train at Reading West all lines are blocked. Impact:Train services running through this station may be cancelled or delayed at short notice. Disruption is expected until 20:30 27/10. Customer Advice: Train services which operate to and from Reading via Reading West to and from Basingstoke, Newbury, Bedwyn, Westbury and the West of England will be subject to cancellation, short notice alteration and delays to 60 minutes. Owing to congestion in the Reading area this incident is also causing delays to train services between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, Oxford, Swindon, Bristol Parkway and South Wales of up to 45 minutes.

As a result of congestion in the Reading area this incident is also resulting in delays to services between London Paddington and Swindon, Bristol Temple Meads, Oxford, Bristol Parkway and South Wales.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 20:06

In view of this widening impact, I've moved this topic to 'across the west'.

[Chris from Nailsea]

It now appears that there are two incidents in the Reading area: from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) live updates -

Line incidents

Line problem in the Reading area.

Train services are being disrupted due to emergency services dealing with an incident in the Reading area. Delays of up to 45 minutes can be expected.
Owing to an incident in the Reading West area there is considerable disruption to train services which is also affecting those services between London Paddington and Oxford, Swindon, Bristol Temple Meads, Bristol Parkway and South Wales.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 20:26

Line problem: at Reading West.

Owing to a person hit by a train at Reading West all lines are blocked. Impact: Train services running through this station may be cancelled or delayed at short notice. Disruption is expected until 20:30 27/10. Customer Advice: Train services which operate to and from Reading via Reading West to and from Basingstoke, Newbury, Bedwyn, Westbury and the West of England will be subject to cancellation, short notice alteration and delays to 60 minutes. Owing to congestion in the Reading area this incident is also causing delays to train services between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, Oxford, Swindon, Bristol Parkway and South Wales of up to 45 minutes.
Last Updated: 27/10/2011 20:16

[bobm]

Local paper Reading Post is reporting only one incident and the woman involved was taken to hospital.

A woman is in a critical condition in hospital after she fell from the Tilehurst Road railway bridge and was hit by a train at around 7.15pm yesterday.

The woman was taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital by ambulance with serious leg injuries and has since been transferred to the John Radcliffe Hosptial in Oxford.

The road was shut while emergency services attended. The police helicopter was used to observe the area and landed in Kensington Park in case the woman needed airlifting to hospital.

Trains in both directions were stopped for more than an hour while police, ambulance workers and firefighters worked on the scene.

[Chris from Nailsea]

One of the comments added to that Reading Post article says:

There was an incident at the Barracks in Oxford Road last night too. Fire engines, police and crowds of people watching.

Would that be it?

[bobm]

According to another article in the paper there was a car accident further up the Oxford Road in Reading by the Barracks but that is too far away from the railway to affect it.  Two people hurt - one taken to hospital.  It is probably about 0.5 to 0.75 miles away.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Daily Mail:

Woman pensioner has both legs sliced off in fall in front of train from bridge

A woman pensioner who had both her legs cut off but amazingly survived when she fell in front of a train, was fighting for her life in hospital today.
The 60-year-old was believed to have thrown herself off an overbridge as a non-stop train passed through a station several miles from her home.
Police said that she lost both legs when the train ran over her although she and the limbs were rushed to hospital in the remote hope of saving them.
The drama happened as commuters were waiting for the next stopping train at Reading West railway station in Reading, Berkshire, last night.
The woman OAP was thought to have jumped off the bridge over the tracks as a speeding train approached.
The driver tried desperately to stop his train but the woman's legs were run over and almost completely severed.
A British Transport Police spokesman said that the death was not being treated as suspicious.
He added that the victim was thought to have travelled to the station from her home in nearby Wokingham, Berkshire.
Paramedics who rushed to the station on the outskirts of Reading, managed to scoop up the woman with her limbs and she was rushed to the town's Royal Berkshire Hospital where surgeons had been put on alert.
However, doctors were unable to save the legs and were forced to operate.
A spokesman said today that the woman was in a critical but stable condition. 
A spokesman for the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service said that crews had helped to extricate the woman and had assisted the paramedics in carrying her from the platform to the waiting ambulance. 
The incident, which was being treated as a suicide bid, happened just after 7pm and spread chaos on a series of train services across southern England and South Wales, with delays lasting into the night.
A British Transport Police (BTP^▸ (British Transport Police)) spokesman said: "BTP can confirm that a woman was injured after being struck by a train at Reading West rail station.
"The incident was reported to police at 7.10pm and is being treated as non-suspicious.
"BTP officers attended the incident alongside paramedics from the local ambulance service.
"The woman, aged 60 and from Wokingham, was taken to hospital for treatment for serious injuries where she remains in a critical but stable condition.
"The line was handed back to Network Rail at 8.31pm."
The pensioner was struck by the 6.37pm First Great Western service from Basingstoke to Reading and all trains running through Reading West her hit by delays or cancellations in the hours after the fall.
However, overcrowding meant the disruption spread across the country and affected trains to and from London Paddington, Bristol, Swindon, Oxford and South Wales.

[inspector_blakey]

From the Daily Mail:

Woman pensioner has both legs sliced off in fall in front of train from bridge

A woman pensioner who had both her legs cut off but amazingly survived when she fell in front of a train, was fighting for her life in hospital today.
<snip>
A British Transport Police spokesman said that the death was not being treated as suspicious.
<snip>
A spokesman said today that the woman was in a critical but stable condition. 

One of the more crass pieces of journalistic idiocy I've seen this week.

[Chris from Nailsea]

"From the Daily Mail" ... 

[inspector_blakey]

Still, even by their illustrious standards that's pretty egregious

[Mookiemoo]

I'm a daily mail reader!

[Ollie]

I'm a daily mail reader!

Sorry.

[inspector_blakey]

I'm a daily mail reader!

Deepest sympathies from a Guardianista (to use Richard Littlejohn's pet phrase)