Recovery teams at Dornești station in north-eastern Romania have begun collecting and reloading grain from damaged freight wagons after a runaway group of wagons derailed at the station, the railway infrastructure manager CFR S.A. said in an update on Sunday, 8 November.

The wagons broke away during grain transloading operations at Vicșani station on Saturday and rolled uncontrolled towards Dornești, according to CFR. The group consisted of 19 wagons, a figure CFR corrected from the 11 initially reported. At 12:15 local time the wagons entered line 4 at Dornești station and struck two locomotives belonging to another freight operator.

Six wagons derailed in the collision and three overturned, including an empty fuel tank wagon on an adjacent track. A 120-tonne railway crane was sent from Galați to deal with the wreckage, and by 21:15 on Saturday crews had returned 16 of the runaway wagons to Vicșani.

Two lines at the station have reopened. Standard-gauge line 1 and broad-gauge line 7 were back in use on the evening of 7 November, and trains are continuing to run on them while work to clear the remaining affected lines goes on. The broad-gauge line serves trains from Ukraine and Moldova, while the standard-gauge line is the one used across most of Europe.

CFR reported no casualties and said passenger train services were not affected. The cause of the breakaway is to be established by the competent authorities under the legislation in force, and CFR said it strongly condemns any behaviour that can affect railway safety. The reopening of two lines does not mean the station has been fully cleared: the latest update still describes work to recover cargo and restore access to the remaining tracks.