'Room for improvement' in rail safety on Grayrigg anniversary

The Virgin Pendolino train crashed near Little Docker Cottage, in the Grayrigg area. Credit: Picture by Owen Humphreys PA Wire/PA Images

There is "room for improvement" in rail safety despite it being 10 years since the last passenger death in a train crash, industry bosses have warned.

One woman died and 89 other people were injured, 30 of them seriously, when a Virgin Trains service derailed at 95mph on the West Coast Main Line in Grayrigg, Cumbria, on February 23 2007.

It was Britain's last train crash involving a passenger fatality.

Margaret Masson. Credit: PA

In 2007, the 300-tonne Pendolino train from London to Glasgow came off the tracks at Grayrigg due to a badly maintained and faulty set of points.

Eight of the nine carriages fell down an embankment, with five turning onto their sides.

Passenger Margaret Masson, 84, from Glasgow, died.

The train's driver, Iain Black. Credit: Picture by Lucinda Cameron PA Wire/PA Images

The train's driver, Iain Black, was hailed a hero after he stayed at the controls.

Despite suffering a broken neck he made a mobile phone call to his girlfriend, a manager with Virgin Trains, to stop all other trains on the line.

He has made a good recovery but still has continual pain in his neck.

Network Rail was found to have been responsible. Credit: Picture by Owen Humphreys PA Wire/PA Images

Network Rail, the firm responsible for the upkeep of the railways, accepted it was at fault and was fined £4 million over safety failures.

The derailment came five years after the last of a spate of fatal crashes.

In October 1999, 31 people were killed in the Paddington rail disaster in west London, while four died in October 2000 at Hatfield in Hertfordshire.

Ten people were killed in the Selby crash in Yorkshire in February 2001, and the Potters Bar crash in Hertfordshire claimed seven lives in May 2002.