A CONCERNED MP demanded urgent answers from a rail operator last night about the cause of an accident which led to a train hitting the buffers at a Suffolk station, injuring six passengers.

A CONCERNED MP demanded urgent answers from a rail operator last night about the cause of an accident which led to a train hitting the buffers at a Suffolk station, injuring six passengers.

Bosses at 'one' are still refusing to speculate whether the brakes failed on the train, but South Suffolk MP Tim Yeo said they should “put people's minds at rest immediately”.

He said the firm should make an urgent statement about the cause of the incident on Friday evening at Sudbury Railway Station.

He demanded if the accident did happen as a result of brake failure, any problems with safety on the line should be put right straight away: “If remedial action is needed it should be taken immediately. Quite clearly safety standards should be the same on that line as on any other.

“Just because it's a quiet line and has short trains it doesn't mean safety standards should not be as strict as anywhere else. What we need is a clear statement from 'one' about what they believe happened and the cause.

“The point is that rail travel is a very safe form of transport and one of the reasons for that is that (rail companies) maintain very high standards. We need to be sure this is maintained. With rumour and chatter around the station the only way to deal with it is to give a full account of what happened.

“I hope this is what 'one' will do. I would urge 'one' to put people's minds at rest immediately. I would want them to be making a statement on Monday on the first working day since the accident.”

Friday's drama unfolded as the 6.05pm train from Marks Tey was drawing to the end of the line at Sudbury. Several passengers who had already stood up to get off when the two-carriage train hit the buffers were thrown to the floor by the violent jolt.

The injured passengers were treated for minor injuries at the scene by paramedics and it is not believed any of them needed hospital treatment.

Services on the line were disrupted until mid-morning on Saturday when accident investigators finally moved the damaged train, using another engine, to a depot in Norwich for a full inspection.

Peter Meades, spokesman for 'one', said the train was moved to the maintenance depot at around 10.30am. Until then, he said, a replacement bus service for the hourly morning service and the disrupted Friday night trains had been in place.

Mr Meades said he was unable to comment or speculate on the cause of the accident until the investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Board was complete and refused to be drawn on suggestions from rail workers at the scene that brake failure had been to blame.

He said the damage to the train would be assessed at the depot but could not comment on the extent of the repairs which would be needed.

The spokesman apologised to passengers inconvenienced by the incident: “We're in the business of operating the scheduled train service and when we are not able to do that we recognise that creates inconvenience to passengers.

“But clearly our first priority in any such incident is safety and to make sure that the investigation is carried out properly and in a competent manner to enable us to restore the service as soon as possible. In this instance we have been able to restore the service from mid-morning on Saturday and the service is now running normally.”