Mining giant BHP Billiton was forced to deliberately derail a 268-car freight train, loaded with iron ore, after it had traveled an alarming 92km across Western Australia with no one on board. As a result, the world’s biggest miner had suspended all Western Australian iron ore rail operations while an investigation was underway, The Australian Newspaper reported, without citing a source. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the driver of a loaded ore train traveling on BHP's Newman to Port Hedland railway got off to inspect a wagon; the train, consisting of four locomotives and 268 wagons, started to run away without the driver and with no one on board, traveling for 92 km before it was deliberately derailed by BHP’s remote control center in Perth. The Mount Newman railway line carries ore from Newman in Australia’s iron ore-rich Pilbara to Port Hedland across a remote 426 kilometers and is one of Australia’s longest private railways. A BHP spokeswoman said no one was injured and the Pilbara miner has suspended all train operations. “If there is significant track damage, it could be that train loadings and speeds could be constrained post repairs and restarting of shipments,” BMO Capital Markets said in a note. BHP said that the train began to move at 0440 am while the driver was out conducting an inspection, before the train was intentionally derailed after about 90 km at about 0530 am. Runaway BHP train deliberately derailed near Port Hedland after travelling 92km with no driver

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A runaway train laden with iron ore has been deliberately derailed by BHP after it travelled for more than 90 kilometres without a driver in WA's remote Pilbara region.
In Port Hedland, Australia, authorities deliberately derail a runaway train after the driver left the train for an inspection. The assemblage consisted of four locomotives and two hundred sixty-eight wagons, was operated by BHP Billiton on the Pilbara Railways, and traveled ninety-two kilometers. The train was en route from Newman to Port Hedland.