Train crashes into hotel in Finland; casualties avoided

[Tiriol]

Meanwhile, in Finland: a train crashes into a hotel in Finland's biggest and busiest railway station. As reported by Helsingin Sanomat.

Train crashes into hotel at Helsinki’s Central Railway Station
Services badly disrupted owing to accident

Four runaway coaches of a long-distance train overran the buffers and crashed into the office wing of the Holiday Inn Hotel at Helsinki’s Central Railway Station at around 8.30 on Monday morning.
Reportedly, nobody was seriously hurt in the incident, as the employees of the accounting firm Ernst & Young located in the office wing narrowly escaped the crash.

The scope of the damage to the hotel building is not known yet, but material damage is estimated to amount to millions of euros.
The building has been evacuated and at the moment it is being examined. Hotel guests have been allowed to return to their rooms, but the office wing has been closed.
The four coaches had escaped from an empty Intercity train that was scheduled to leave for the eastern city of Kajaani at 8.12 a.m.

Shortly before the accident, the eight-coach train was being transferred from the depot to the Central Railway Station, when a problem with the brakes was noticed and the train was stopped at Linnunlaulu, between the Pasila and Helsinki stations.
For some unknown reason, the train then split into two parts. Four coaches came loose, continuing their trip on the gentle downslope towards Helsinki Station without the engine.
”When the coaches broke loose, the brakes on individual coaches should have come on automatically. For some reason, this did not happen”, reports Ari Vanhanen, the head of long-distance services at the Finnish State Railways VR.

The incident was noticed immediately, and staff were instantly alert to the consequences of the runaway carriages trundling under their own momentum towards the station.
The coaches were routed onto a track containing no other rolling stock, in order to minimise the possible damage on impact, and an announcement was made through loudspeakers at the railway station, ordering people to move away from the place on Platform 13 where the rails end in front of the hotel building.

Only moments before the impact, the passengers in another commuter train waiting for departure on the adjacent track had also been told to get out and run away from the platforms as fast as they could.
According to an eyewitness, the accident caused panic for a while when people were running away from the platforms. Some feared that it was a bomb attack.
Moreover, the sound caused by the collision was heard widely in the neighbourhood of the station, scaring people.

Train traffic at Helsinki’s Central Railway Station came to a complete standstill for more than an hour. The overhead wires of trains had been damaged when the empty coaches collided with the platform, and trains were waiting on all tracks, reported Communications Manager Leena Linnamäki from VR.
Train timetables could be affected at least until mid-day, but VR says that the situation is expected to improve by the evening.
Traffic on the main railway line north is supposed to continue in the afternoon, but some delays in train services can be expected. However, the greatest disruption will be experienced on the coastal line between Helsinki and Turku - commuter trains on this line leave from the platforms in the immediate vicinity of the accident.

The Accident Investigation Board has launched an inquiry into the incident.
In 1990, a similar accident occurred, when a goods train slammed into the wall of Helsinki’s Central Railway Station, when the brakes failed.
One double-decker InterCity carriage weighs roughly 70 tonnes.
The speed of the runaway coaches at the time of impact with the hotel wall was thought to be approximately 20-30km/hour.

The hardships faced by our dear country continue: the shopping centre shooting, a flooded metro station and a city district centre, and now this. Let's just say that this winter and new year have not been particularly kind to us... I'm just thankful that nobody got hurt.

[Edi]

An auspicious start for a new year indeed...

It's a minor miracle there were no injuries and the fast evacuation shows that VR got a handle on the events quickly. I used to travel from that section daily in the past and around the time of the accident is one of the busiest times of the day. If the hotel had collapsed, well, that'd have been an epic shitload worse.

For everyone else's benefit, that building is a massive glass and concrete structure that is standing on two "legs", meaning that there are two gaps in the middle of the structure to allow passage to the tracks. So if those sections, which are fairly small compared to total building footprint, were to be structurally compromised, the whole edifice would come crashing down in short order and wreck half the train station and the adjacent bus terminal would get totaled in its entirety. We're only talking about one of the two busiest transport hubs in the entire country. The metro station flooding was just 200 meters from this site.

[His Divine Shadow]

All we lack now is a full blow terrorist attack by Al-Qaida and Russia invading.

[Lord Revan]

All we lack now is a full blow terrorist attack by Al-Qaida and Russia invading.

god's sake don't temp fate we got enough shit all ready.

[Broomstick]

Yes, please, don't give anyone any ideas!

Sorry to hear about the problems in Finland. I am also glad no one got hurt in this latest incident.