Two East Midlands Railway trains crash in Bedford fields

Aerial footage of the aftermath shows the two damaged East Midlands Railway (EMR) trains with most carriages on the tracks but at least one shunted off.

Footage shows a long line of emergency vehicles on a rural road as emergency crews and passengers of the two southbound trains gathered in the neighbouring field.

The two East Midlands Railway services involved were the 4.40pm from Corby to London St Pancras and the 3.50pm Nottingham to London St Pancras, the rail operator said.

Air ambulance helicopters are on the ground after the collision happened just south of the Elstow interchange between the A421 and the A6.

Serious injuries have reportedly been sustained by on-board staff and passengers, a Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union spokesperson said.

A team of RAIB (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) inspectors is on site at the scene of a collision between two trains near Elstow, to start gathering evidence.

Passenger Pete Knapp described people “crying, screaming” and said some seemed to have major injuries.

He told the Press Association: “There was a moment of being flung into the chair in front, and then I saw smoke. People were crying, screaming, people were so scared and confused.

“I got up and I saw a lot of people who were unable to speak, had broken legs, and then I managed to get out of the train and because I’m quite thin I was able to squeeze out through the gap in the doors.”

The 40-year-old added: “My first thought was I needed to get out of the train just in case it was a terrorist explosion, I thought it was safer to get off the train.”

He said he had not felt the train slow down before the crash but other passengers told him they had.

Dr Knapp told PA he saw people with “life-threatening, major injuries, minor injuries” as well as “people with bandages, people who couldn’t see straight”, while others like him were still able to walk.

Police close a road in Bedford, after the 4.40pm East Midlands Railway service from Corby to London St Pancras and the 3.50pm Nottingham to London St Pancras service, were involved in a collision just south of the Elstow interchange between the A421 and (Image: Jordan Reynolds/PA Wire)

He said: “I’ve got blood all over my trousers and my back hurts like hell but I’m alright.”

The crash occurred at 5.12pm leaving the “front of train OK, third carriage off rails”, he said earlier on Bluesky.

“Sudden crash, no slowing down or horns. No warning.

“No explosion, just stopped instantly,” he said.

Dr Knapp added: “No horns, warnings, explosions, just sudden impact. No terrorism signs.”

Bedford Hospital and Luton and Dunstable University Hospital have both asked people to avoid attending their emergency departments “unless they have a genuine medical emergency” as they respond to the “active incident”.

Meanwhile British Transport Police warned concerned relatives or friends of people who may have been on the trains not to travel to the scene.

EMR trains are “unable to run in or out of” London St Pancras for the rest of the day and it advised customers: “DO NOT TRAVEL this evening”.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “deeply concerned” by the reports.

In a post on X, she said: “I’m grateful to emergency services who are on the scene, attending to those affected.

“We’re working quickly with the rail industry and local partners to support passengers.”

Health Secretary James Murray is being kept updated on the events, he posted on X.

The crash appears to have been a “relatively slow speed collision” and the damage to the trains looked “fairly minimal”, a rail expert told Sky News.

Tony Miles said: “Obviously it’s a rear end collision, they were going in the same direction, so one of them, the rear one was going faster than the one it’s caught up with, for some reason. That’s not a complicated assumption.

“So, the question has to be how has that train that’s in the rear got in to contact with the train that it was following, and obviously it’s either gone past the signal that was telling it it should stop, or the signal was faulty, or the driver’s made a mistake in some way, or didn’t read the signal, or something.”

He added: “Even if you’re going 40 miles an hour and you come to a halt in a few metres, you’ve got the energy of a 40-mile-an-hour body in you, and you’re going to move until you hit something, unfortunately. So, even relatively low-speed collisions can be dangerous for people that are on board.”

Bedford and Kempston MP Mohammad Yasin said he was “very sorry” to hear of the incident and would share more information “soon”.

Transport Salaried Staffs Association general secretary, Maryam Eslamdoust, said it is “devastating to hear of the collision” and “safety on our railways is always our number one priority”.

East of England Ambulance Service sent air ambulance and a Hazardous Area Response Team encouraged people to avoid the area.