Report finds serious flaw in SNCF Réseau safety system
FRANCE: The country’s land transport accident investigation bureau (BEA-TT) has concluded that SNCF Réseau lifted traffic restrictions on a flood-damaged freight line after on-site inspections failed to detect the washouts under the track, calling the failure “a very serious flaw” in the infrastructure manager’s monitoring and safety system. The first train sent down the line derailed.
The BEA-TT has now published its final report on the accident that happened at Oulchy-Breny in northern France on 30 October 2024. Freight train 416 822, operated by Captrain France with 23 empty wagons, came off the tracks at 07:57 where flooding had washed out the track bed. The locomotive and the first wagon tipped onto their sides and a second wagon derailed. The driver was uninjured. Both tracks were severely damaged over more than 200 metres.
The inspection that missed the washouts
Storm Kirk dropped 70 to 100 millimetres of rain on the area over 24 hours on 9 and 10 October 2024, on ground already saturated after weeks of heavy rain. The Ourcq and its tributary the Ordrimouille flooded, and water from the Ordrimouille rose over the embankment and opened six breaches under the track. A Gendarmerie helicopter patrol alerted SNCF Réseau to mudslides on the line between Fismes and La Ferté-Milon on 10 October.
The safety measures and the investigations appear to have followed the rules in force, according to the report. The investigations carried out on 11 October nonetheless failed to identify the breaches the flooding had opened under the track, and the traffic restrictions were lifted. The train that derailed 19 days later was the first to run after the closure.
The report sets out three levels. It identifies the flood damage as the principal cause, SNCF Réseau’s failure in carrying out the site inspections as a major contributing factor and the driver’s handling as an aggravating factor. The driver had been instructed to drive by sight across the entire section but did not apply the instruction correctly, and he was abnormally alone in the cab, in the investigators’ words. He saw the gaps in the track too late to stop.
Deadline of 10 November
The five recommendations go to SNCF Réseau and to two national directorates, the agriculture ministry’s directorate-general for economic and environmental performance of enterprises (DGPE) and the interior ministry’s directorate-general for civil protection and crisis management (DGSCGC). They include revised risk assessments during site visits, monitoring equipment on vulnerable structures and rapid inspection methods using video or satellite imagery after severe weather warnings, to target foot patrols more precisely.
All three addressees have 90 days from receipt to tell the BEA-TT what action they intend to take and how long implementation would require. The bureau has set the deadline at 10 November 2026.