Soure train crash

During the day of the accident (31 July 2020), the maintenance vehicle (Portuguese: Veículo de Conservação de Catenária - VCC) No. 105, belonging to Infraestruturas de Portugal, was circulating between Entroncamento and Mangualde with two crew members on board and while not doing any maintenance job.[2] Around 15:12, it stopped on a Soure station siding, while waiting for the Alfa Pendular train 4005 to pass.[3] The AP train was travelling from Lisbon to Braga, calling at Coimbra and Oporto.[4]

For unknown reasons, despite the sign on the siding being red, the maintenance vehicle resumed its course at 15:25, entering track I, which would soon be occupied by train 4005.[2] As the track became occupied by the maintenance vehicle, the track I sign changed to red and Alfa Pendular's brakes were activated but, due to the short distance between the two vehicles, this was not sufficient to avoid collision, which happened around 15:26, about 20 seconds after the maintenance vehicle entered the line.[2]

Due to the violence of the collision, the first two carriages were derailed and the maintenance vehicle was dragged for some 500 meters, where both vehicles came to a halt.[2][5] The passenger train was travelling at 190 kilometres per hour (120 mph) at the time of the collision.[4] Two people were killed and 43 were injured, three seriously.[6] The two casualties were the crew members aboard the maintenance vehicle.[7] The Alfa Pendular train was severely damaged and VCC No. 105 was destroyed.[8] Two rescue helicopters and 163 rescue personnel were sent to the scene,[4] where a field hospital was established.[8] That section of the Linha do Norte was suspended and Comboios de Portugal organized a road service to replace it.[9] Circulation on the track resumed at 01:45 2 August 2020 for the South direction, with speed restrictions, and at 09:00 of the same day for the North direction.[10]

VCC No. 106, similar to that involved in the accident.

The Gabinete de Prevenção e Investição de Accidentes com Aeronaves e de Accidentes Ferriviários (GPIAAF) opened an investigation into the accident. Early indications are that the maintenance vehicle passed a signal at danger and was run into by the passenger train.[6]

In the wake of this accident, the absence of automatic train protection (ATP) in maintenance vehicles was scrutinized.[7] It came to light that, in 2018, after several events where such vehicles passed signals at danger, GPIAAF recommended that IP reassess the possibility of equipping these vehicles with ATP and act to ensure train driving qualifications of their maintenance staff.[11] IP agreed to install ATP, but this was met with difficulties in sourcing CONVEL-compatible equipment from Bombardier.[11][12]

While the suspected cause would be human error — the driver passing the signal at danger —, ATP would have prevented this accident by braking the maintenance vehicle.[1] Its incursion into the reserved block was, however, detected by the track circuit and signals were updated accordingly, but the passenger train had already passed the previous signal and balise, and proceeded at top speed expecting a clear track ahead.[6]