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Police have named the driver killed in the Bedford train crash on Friday, as his family paid tribute to him.
British Transport police said Shaun Burton, 60, was the East Midlands Railway driver killed in the collision on the line between Bedford and Luton that also left 100 people injured.
Two trains collided on the commuter line on Friday afternoon.
In a statement released on Sunday, Burton’s family said: “We are devastated by his loss. Our thoughts are also with those affected by this incident.”
ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, also paid tribute to Burton. General secretary Dave Calfe described him as “dedicated to the job, and devoted to his colleagues and enormously popular at his depot”.
“Shaun, a driver at East Midlands Railway, joined the railway relatively late in life. He loved public transport – he used to work on buses and coaches – before he became a train driver seven years ago … The railway family grieves his passing; no one should go off to work in the morning and not come home. Our thoughts are with his family and friends tonight.”
Earlier on Sunday, Network Rail said that it expected major disruption on the rail line to continue for at least a week.
Engineers are working to remove the track’s overhead electrical wires and construct a temporary access road to the crash site.
This will enable two 110-tonne cranes to lift the damaged trains and carriages on to trailers to remove them by road, allowing engineers to assess any damage to the track and complete the necessary repairs.
The line between Bedford and Luton will remain closed for the rest of the week as a result, with a limited rail replacement bus service in operation instead. There will be no services between Bedford and London St Pancras station.
A limited service will begin to run north from St Pancras as far as Luton from Monday, but there will be no services north of Luton on the busy commuter Thameslink line. Luton airport express services have been cancelled and a rail replacement bus will operate between Luton airport and Luton.
Investigations into the crash are continuing, but the managing director of Network Rail’s eastern region, Ellie Burrows, said “current indications are that this was a tragic isolated incident”.
Removing the two trains is a “complex and challenging task”, she said, adding that services through the area would be disrupted for most of the week and people should only travel if absolutely necessary.
More than 80 passengers were treated in hospital on Friday night. As of Saturday morning, 28 were still in hospital, nine of them in a critical condition.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said on Saturday that its inspectors were continuing to gather evidence at the scene, which is just south of the Elstow interchange between the A421 and the A6. An update would be provided “in the coming days”, the organisation said.
The trains involved were the 4.40pm Friday service from Corby to St Pancras and the 3.50pm departure from Nottingham to the same destination.
The front of the Corby train was crushed when it crashed into the rear of the Nottingham train, and it also sustained damage to its rear carriages when they were shunted into the ones in front.
The chief constable of British Transport Police, Lucy D’Orsi, said people in Bedfordshire had shown “immense kindness to those stranded on trains and casualties”.
One person from Elstow, who did not wish to be named, said a friend’s son had had a full view of the crash site from his home. “There was loads of people throwing out water and food over the fence. They did everything they could to try and help those people,” she said.
Network Rail said that while the Midland mainline was closed at Bedford, train operators would accept tickets for affected EMR customers on any alternative route. If customers decide to travel on EMR once the line is reopened, their connecting ticket on other operators will be valid on that day too.
Journey planning apps and websites are being updated to reflect the changes to the timetable but may take a few hours to do so, Network Rail said. Customers are advised to check live travel updates before they travel.
