The fatal Cumbria train derailment shows that lessons have not been learned since the Potters Bar crash nearly five years ago, it was claimed tonight.
A faulty set of points was the "immediate cause" of Friday evening's accident at Grayrigg, near Kendal, an interim accident report said today, prompting calls for a public inquiry.
One of three stretcher bars - which keep moving rails a set distance apart - was missing, the other two were fractured and there were bolts missing, Britain's Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) found.
Louise Christian, the solicitor representing the families of those killed at Potters Bar in May 2002, said the circumstances of the earlier accident were "incredibly similar".
She called for a joint public inquiry into the two crashes, focusing on the issue of railway maintenance, to find out "why the lessons haven't been learnt". "I don't think it's good enough for the Government to sit on its hands again as it did over Potters Bar," she said.
The RAIB report said the points failure on Friday meant the London to Scotland Virgin Pendolino tilting train moving over the tracks could not follow its proper path and derailed. There was also evidence that the last scheduled visual inspection of the track on February 18 by Network Rail (NR) - the infrastructure company responsible for the track - did not take place.
Rail unions also called for a public inquiry into the accident, in which an 84-year-old woman died in hospital after the crash and 22 others needed hospital treatment.
Virgin train driver Iain Black -who has been hailed a hero for his actions in trying to control the train - tonight paid tribute to the emergency services and said he was "distraught" that somebody had died.
NR chief executive John Armitt said his company was "devastated" at the RAIB findings, that NR accepted the report in its entirety and he apologised to all those "affected by the failure of the infrastructure".
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson said he took his hat off to NR "for taking it on the chin" and that the report showed the strength of the Pendolino carriages which did not break up in the crash.
Before the interim report came out the four grandchildren of the woman who died - Margaret "Peggy" Masson - paid tribute to their "generous, loving nan". And one of the injured passengers Graeme Stewart (28) speaking at Royal Preston Hospital, said: "I don't want to blame anyone, but I want a reason for what happened. "I travel on the train all the time so I need to know it's safe before I get on the train again."
The RAIB's initial findings show that the probable cause of the Cumbria accident is similar to the cause of the May 2002 Potters Bar derailment, which claimed seven lives.
At Potters Bar there were nuts missing from a set of points and the lock stretcher bar fractured. The report today said the immediate cause of the accident was the condition of the stretcher bar arrangement at the points — known as Lambrigg.
The Virgin train could not follow the correct route across the tracks as it went over this set of points and "climbed over both switch rails and then ran into a derailed state".
There was no evidence the signals, the condition of the train or the way it was being driven had contributed to the accident, the report said. There was also no evidence that the bolts on the points had been wrenched free.
There were 111 passengers and four staff on board the train. Following its derailment, the train travelled a further 600 metres and came to rest on the side of a railway embankment.