ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners say that it was mere luck that the train that hurtled off the tracks at Grayrigg last month was not one carrying nuclear waste.

Experts from campaigning organisation Greenpeace say that the stretch of the West Coast Main Line where the Virgin Pendolino train derailed is regularly used by freight trains carrying nuclear waste to the Sellafield reprocessing plant in West Cumbria.

Although one passenger died and 22 were seriously injured in the February 23 derailment, Greenpeace's senior nuclear adviser Jean McSorley feared that the situation could have been much worse if the train had been one carrying nuclear waste.

According to Greenpeace, trains carrying waste from nuclear reactors around the country use the West Coast Main Line to transport nuclear waste from Crewe and Heysham to Sellafield.

Eva Foran, a spokeswoman for Direct Rail Services, which transports nuclear material to Sellafield said that she could not confirm whether or not the route was used by nuclear trains because the information was classified.

But she added that any nuclear waste was transported in flasks that were 30 centimetres thick.

She said: "The flasks are tested in very extreme conditions, for example throwing them off bridges and engulfing them in flames," and added: "As a company we don't have any concerns about the flasks' safety."

* THE first passenger train to travel through South Lakeland since the Grayrigg derailment completed its long-awaited journey on Monday without any reported problems. A spokesman for Virgin Trains said the line officially reopened at 3am on Monday and that a normal service was now operating.

For full story see the March 16 Westmorland Gazette.