Spectacular tram derailment in Utrecht

[DanielB]

A tram on its way from Utrecht Central station to Utrecht Science Park derailed in a spectacular way this morning after it collided with a delivery van of supermarket chain Jumbo at a level crossing. While derailing the tram overturned a mast of the overhead lines and ended completely blocking the Laan van Maarschalkerweerd. According to a spokesperson of the local police the tram driver, the van driver and the five passengers on the tram were not injured in the incident. Operator U-OV expects tram traffic will be suspended the entire day.

Image source: Startpagina / Twitter

Probably it was a lucky coincidence the derailment happened during the pandemic, as in normal circumstances route 22 which the tram was operating is one of the busiest routes in The Netherlands and the tram would have been packed with standing passengers.

 

[Ianno87]

That's....impressive.

Presumably the tram was running right to left, the front derailed but the back kept pushing it until it stopped.

 

[edwin_m]

Looking at what appear to be scrape marks on the left-hand carriageway (traffic flow towards camera) between the two sections of tram, I think the truck and the front of the tram probably collided where the track crosses that carriageway in the background, derailing the tram to the left in its direction of travel. The momentum of the rest of the double tram pushed it into this "question mark" shape and also pushed the truck along the carriageway.

There was something similar but less dramatic on a skew road crossing in Nottingham a few years back:
(6) Nottigham Express Transit | RailUK Forums (railforums.co.uk)

A collision between a van and a tram has closed University Boulevard and delayed tram and bus services to and from the city.

 

[Adoarable]

The car that’s trapped inside the snake of the tram looks like it’s passed the traffic light stop line and may be foul of the tram tracks itself. I wonder if the lights for road traffic were green, and that’s what caused the van to be in the path of the tram.
Alternatively, perhaps the driver of that car was indeed stopped behind the line, saw the crash and derailment of the tram towards it, and pulled forward in order to avoid the collision.

 

[DanielB]

This specific level crossing in particular has resulted in a high number of complaints by locals, whose opinion is its unsafe and should be equipped with barriers. As can be seen here (view along the tram tracks from the level crossing), the Laan van Maarschalkerweerd is parallel to the tram tracks for quite a large distance followed by the bend with the intersection of tram tracks and road seen on the above photo). So it's quite possible the van driver had never seen the tram in his rear-view mirror and subsequently missed the red light and crossed the tracks when the tram was approaching.

Trams are approaching the intersection quite fast, the maximum speed is 70 km/h until just before the intersection, then 40 km/h in the curve and 20 km/h after the curve. So its quite easy not to notice an approaching tram. But I think barriers are also not really an option: in total 32 trams per hour (16 tph in each direction) pass this intersection in the regular timetable, so barriers would likely be almost continuously closed.

The disruptions caused by the incident continued the entire day today: it took until 21.00 in the evening to remove the derailed tram by crane, the rear tram was towed to the depot. Today it took the whole day to repair the overhead wires, tracks and the road.

 

[edwin_m]

A barrier might help if the problem is drivers deliberately attempting to beat the tram across the junction, although a camera might be both cheaper and more effective. But I suspect if the driver is failing to see lights that are above as well as and to the right, then they'd probably fail to see a barrier across the road too.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Would a flyover for the trams be an affordable option?

 

[DanielB]

I doubt that will be affordable: the local situation is relatively complicated as immediately after the left hand curved intersection with the Laan van Maarschalkerweerd there's a bridge crossing the Kromme Rijn followed by a right hand curve. And immediately after that right hand curve there's a tram stop. Moving that stop won't be very customer-friendly as this stop has an important function as interchange between U-link bus 41 and the tram (which provided a much more frequent connection from Wijk bij Duurstede to Utrecht Science Park than a direct bus did offer in the past)

One should also take into account the troublesome history of this tram link: it was opened many years late in 2019, so it's actually brand new. The budget was significantly exceeded and as the company responsible for the infrastructure and rolling stock (Regiotram Utrecht) is owned by Utrecht province, this lead to the accountant not approving the financial statements resulting in the province being under close supervision by the government for several years.
This level crossing is not the only problem on the line: the combined bus/tram lane trough Utrecht Science Park is suffering from unexpectedly high wear and tear due to the 16 trams and about 45 buses per hour (in the peak direction at rush hour) passing over it.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Mar 2021 ==

Today the police presented the findings of their investigation into the cause of this accident. They concluded the van driver had passed a red traffic light.

Edit: Police have withdrawn their statement the driver was intoxicated as this appeared to be a preliminary test result.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Apparently cycling is popular in Nederland, to judge by the number of parked vehicles in the picture, so is driving. Time to make driving/travelling by whatever method less attractive I think.

 

[dutchflyer]

From the news here in NL since:
yesterday: vandriver-for a supermarket chain, went through red light and was suspected of being above alcohol threshold.
Update since: alco not confirmed, as there has not been result of a bloodtest for that yet-only breathalizer.
Tramline was out of use for 2 days to clear and repair. About the actual tramsets I dont know.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Clearly questions will be asked about this incident... (even more so had the van finished up at the other end of the tram consist).

(Waar ist mijn jas? )