A TIRED railway worker had a near miss and was almost struck by a train travelling over 80mph near a Hampshire station, a report has revealed.

The incident happened close to Shawford Station, near Winchester last June.

According to a Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report, the track worker crossed the railway without the permission of the Control of Site Safety (COSS) to find a rail defect. And, because he was "distracted" did not hear the horn from an approaching train.

The report said the man only moved out of the way of the oncoming train two seconds before it sped past.

The incident caused the driver of the train, which was travelling from London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour, to do an emergency stop 100m away from Shawford Station. 

The worker was left "badly shaken" but uninjured.

According to the RAIB report, the worker may have become distracted because of fatigue as he had been sleeping in his car all week, to avoid making long commutes to Essex each day.

Now the RAIB have made recommendations on how to improve safety to avoid incidents like this.

According to the report there was a breakdown in safety measures when the Control of Site Safety and a failure to implement the required safe system of work for going onto the line.

The RAIB have made recommendations which include improving the management of fatigued members of staff who need to make long journeys before and after their shift.

It also stated Network Rail needed to consider the reasons why its management arrangement on Wessex Route did not detect failures of people not implementing safety advice.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “We have received the Rail Accident Investigation Branch’s investigation into the near miss at Shawford in June 2016.

"The safety of everyone who works on and uses the railway is our top priority, and we will review the report and the recommendations made by the RAIB.”