Evening Standard (London): CONNEX 'PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE' WITH SPLITTING TRAINS

THE LONDON commuter company Connex was today accused of playing "Russian roulette" with the safety of passengers and staff after refusing to withdraw 100 of the trains which can come apart in the middle.

The claim came as it was revealed that yet another eight-carriage train had come apart - leaving two four-car sections on the busy track during the evening rush hour between Albany Park and Bexley stations. Tony West, assistant general secretary of the train drivers' union Aslef, said: "If they carry on regardless using these units, Connex is playing Russian roulette."

The union was "seriously concerned at the risk to passengers and staff while these defective units remain in service".

Mr West said drivers had been "unfairly accused by Connex South Eastern" of being responsible for the coupling failures, which had been identified as an "engineering coupling procedure problem".

Around 24 trains have come apart, some leaving passengers stranded on busy tracks, since January - more than occurred during the whole of last year across the entire country.

In one instance, a Waterloo-bound Eurostar from Brussels was ordered to slow down as it came through south-east London to help find a four-car section of a train which a driver had reported "lost".

A Connex spokesman said the company was not planning to withdraw any of the defective stock "at the moment". He denied the problem was a "safety issue".

The latest train to come apart was the result of a series of incidents which would have been farcical if not so serious. Staff tried to join two of the four-carriage Networker trains together "a number" of times at Orpington sidings but failed.

They turned the double-ended trains around and tried again but also failed.

They then did get the trains to couple but the linkage was seen to be not fully home - and then they could not get them apart again.

At this point, it was decided to run the train empty on Wednesday evening to Slade Green depot - but as it was nearing Bexley it came apart. This blocked the line with the result that four rush-hour trains had to be cancelled and two more stopped short of their destinations.

The Connex spokesman said they were in the process of designing with Midland train makers Adtranz a special "spring loaded pressure cylinder" which would be attached to the couplings to prevent them coming apart.

He added: "Passengers are not in danger." If a train does come apart, he said, both sections would brake automatically. The signals would indicate that either one or two parts of a train were at a standstill and other services would be prevented from going through.