On 16 September 2003 a GNER express was derailed at just after 07:00hrs (BST) immediately after leaving Platform 4 at King's Cross station in London. The immediate cause of the accident was the routing of the train onto a length of track with a missing rail. The length of rail had been removed during maintenance work, as is permissible, but it should not have been possible for a train to be routed onto the section of track where the rail had been removed. This should have been prevented by setting the signalling system to block the move, an action which maintenance contractors had failed to carry out.
The significance of this accident was not in the accident itself, which was not serious, but in the political consequences for the private contractors, Jarvis plc, employed to maintain the track.
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