STORY
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch has launched an investigation after a passenger train came within seconds of hitting a track worker at Harpenden late last month. The incident happened at about 23.41 on Saturday 7 March 2026, when a Govia Thameslink Railway service travelling at 62mph on the Down Fast line was involved in a near miss with an engineering supervisor.
RAIB said the worker had entered the railway from a designated access point to place work site marker boards on the Up and Down Slow lines, which had been blocked as part of overnight engineering work between Radlett Junction and Flitwick Junction. However, forward facing CCTV showed the supervisor walking on the Down Fast line, which remained open to traffic, before jumping clear around one second before the train passed.
Investigators will now examine the sequence of events leading up to the incident, including the actions of those involved, how access to the worksite was planned and how the risks of being on or near an open railway line were being managed.