Train travelled at 80mph with door open, says investigation

Train travelled for 16 miles before open door was discovered

A commuter train from London Liverpool Street travelled for 23 minutes with a door open (RAIB/Tim Neobard)

A passenger train travelled at 80mph for 23 minutes while a door was open.

The commuter train was speeding from London Liverpool Street station to Southend Victoria in Essex when the incident occurred, according to a preliminary investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Bureau (RAIB).

At around 7.20am on 22 August near Hockley station, a passenger on the train told the driver that the door was open – on the opposite side to the platform.

The train had travelled 16 miles by that point, at around 80mph.

An image of the incident shows one half of the door wide open.

Martin Moran, commercial and customer service director at Greater Anglia, said: “Safety is our highest priority.

“We immediately took the train out of service when this happened and carried out our own investigation into the incident. We have also carried out checks on every single door on that type of train that we have.

“No one was injured in this incident and there have been no further incidents since.”

The RAIB will publish a safety digest of the incident in the next few weeks, it said.

Last month, a Japanese bullet train travelling at 280kph was forced to make an emergency stop after a cleaner left a door wide open.

The super-fast train was travelling from Sendai in the country’s northeast to the capital Tokyo when the alarming incident occurred. No one was hurt, the East Japan Railway Company said.