Services have resumed on a suburban Adelaide rail line after a train carrying about 20 passengers derailed and collided with a buffer.
The train slid off the tracks at the end of Grange Station around 6.30pm on Tuesday and hit a bumper stop next to Military Road. Passengers and staff were uninjured and safely disembarked.
Services on the Grange line resumed on Wednesday after repairs were completed overnight.
Public Transport Authority executive director Scott White said the incident would be investigated to determine what caused the derailment.
“Essentially the train sort of slipped, so it never stopped and the wheels span and the train continued,” he told ABC Radio Adelaide.
“And then of course we’ve got a buffer stop there which is there for this exact reason, it did its job and stopped that train from going any further.”
White said the buffer stops were designed to stop trains travelling at low speeds when entering the end of the line.
“Occasionally they do dislodge the buffer, in this instance they did,” he said.
Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator was assisting the investigation.
“We are talking about very, very heavy pieces of machinery on rail tracks that when things go wrong, they can be catastrophic,” he said.
“Stopping a train is very very hard, so that is why we always have a lot of focus on safety.
“But I’m just very pleased that no-one was injured, very pleased that no-one was on the footpath or in the way of that train as it came off those rail lines.”
