Train carrying 50 passengers crashes through station buffers

Two people were injured when a train carrying around 50 passengers crashed through buffers at a station.

The eight-carriage London Overground train derailed and came to a stop just short of hitting the ticket hall at Enfield Town in north London at around 8.20am on Tuesday.

The station is at the end of a line connected to Liverpool Street, making it popular with commuters who work in the City of London.

Rory O’Neill, Transport for London’s general manager for London Overground, described the incident as “a low-speed collision”, adding that “there will be a full investigation to establish how this happened”.

More than a dozen emergency services vehicles were deployed to the scene.

London Fire Brigade station commander Jim O’Neill said around 50 people were evacuated from the train, which had “gone up over the top” of the buffers.

A British Transport Police spokeswoman said the driver and another person were “checked over by paramedics”.

She added that the driver was breathalysed “as is routine”, and “blew negative”.

Network Rail said the driver was treated for shock.

London Ambulance Service said two people were assessed at the scene for minor injuries but were not taken to hospital.

A worker from a nearby postal sorting office said he was “shocked” by the sight of the crashed train.

Gary Spencer, 37, told the PA news agency: “(There was) initially some shock but, more importantly, (I was hoping) that there were no casualties.”

He added: “I have never known a train to fail stopping at the end of the line… if the metal steel was not behind the buffer I’m confident the train would have damaged the building.”

Rail regulator the Office of Rail and Road said it sent two safety inspectors to the crash site to “help establish the full circumstances surrounding this incident”.