Bedford rail crash: train sped up after red light warning, say investigators

The train that ran into the back of another in the Bedford rail crash sped up after the driver received a warning that he had passed a red light, rail investigators have reported.

The driver of the East Midlands train, who died in the crash in June, acknowledged the automatic warning but did not appear to act after passing a danger signal that was rarely ever red.

According to an updated report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, the train continued to accelerate before the driver applied the emergency brakes when the stationary train in front came into view.

The train, a southbound Luton airport express from Corby, could not stop in time, and the collision killed the driver, 60-year-old Shaun Burton, who was described by his employers as a “dedicated railway professional”.

Investigators had been seeking to establish if the automatic warning system (AWS) had worked properly, after an initial report found the train had passed a red signal.

The latest interim report published on Thursday concluded that the driver had acknowledged the warning, which had not previously displayed a red light during all of 2026, but continued to accelerate to 76mph. After braking, the train slowed to 49mph before it collided with a stationary Nottingham-London train on the same track.

The first train had stopped, after braking when an AWS warning incorrectly sounded after passing a green signal. The train was a new Aurora class 810 model built by Hitachi, brought into service within the past six months on East Midlands Railway.

In a cab with an unfamiliar layout, when no warning signal was expected, the RAIB report said that “neither the driver nor driving instructor recognised this sound as being an AWS warning indication”. Without an acknowledgment in 2.7 seconds, the system applies an emergency brake.

The accident inspectors reported that in the weeks after the crash, another class 810 train had also incorrectly received an AWS warning indication at the same signal on green.

The RAIB said it would continue to seek to understand why the Corby train had passed a red light, and whether its safety systems had been functioning correctly, as well as the reason why the first Nottingham train had come to a halt.

The report said 160 people had also been injured in the crash, which happened at about 5.13pm on 19 June. It was the fourth involving passenger trains on the UK railway since 2020, after more than a decade without any similar serious incident.