700 points checked after rail crash

Up to 700 set of points across the entire rail network are to be checked as a "precaution" following the Cumbria crash.

The move came after faulty points emerged as the likely cause of the latest crash which comes five years after defective points caused Britain's last major rail disaster at Potters Bar.

As experts examined the points that the Virgin Trains Pendolino ran across at 90mph seconds before it derailed, Network Rail said engineers had already started the nationwide safety checks.

A spokesman said: "As a precautionary measure we are beginning to check between 600 and 700 sets of points across the country".

One passenger, Margaret Masson, 84, from Glasgow, was killed and dozens more injured - 11 seriously - as the train rolled down an embankment near Kendal, Cumbria.

Police said it was "little short of a miracle" that more did not die.

Among those seriously injured are Mrs Masson's daughter Margaret Langley, 61, and her husband Richard, 63, of Southport, Merseyside, who were in the same carriage.

An emergency telephone number had been set up for worried family and friends of the passengers. It is 0800 056 0146 or, from outside the UK, 0044 207 158 0198.

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