CENTRAL Trains is investigating claims by a Malvern passenger that a driver went through a red signal with his fingers crossed for luck.

The incident, on a Hereford-to-Birmingham commuter train, happened the same day as the Hatfield train crash, which killed four people.

Haydn Edwards, of Court Road, said his complaint about the incident to Central Trains had gone unheeded.

He said the incident happened after the train had been stationary at the signalbox just north of Worcester Foregate Street station on Tuesday, October 18.

Mr Edwards said: "Suddenly the intercom came on and we heard the driver having a conversation with a woman in some sort of control centre.

"We heard him say the signal was red but he was going to cross his fingers and go through. That caused a few raised eyebrows.

"He definitely did not know that we could hear him; he wasn't making a flippant comment to amuse the passengers."

Mr Edwards said his telephone complaint to Central Trains, followed up by two faxes, had remained unanswered.

"They seem to have an attitude of keeping their heads down and hoping it will go away," he said.

Mr Edwards, who works for software firm in Birmingham, said the commuter service between Malvern and Birmingham was generally poor.

"It's happened that I have left Birmingham at 5pm and not got home until 9.45pm. It really is not good enough," he said.

A Central Trains spokesman said an investigation was under way into the incident and the driver was due to be interviewed yesterday (Thursday).

National figures show that 46 red signals were passed last month compared to 54 the previous September.

Nigel Barber, a Railtrack spokesman, said the main reason for trains passing through red lights was driver error.

"Sometimes it can be mechanical reasons, faults in the equipment, sometimes it can be poor siting but the main reason is driver error," he said.

Following the Ladbroke Grove crash last year, Mr Barber said the number of red lights passed has fallen by 32 per cent.

"We are installing a Train Protection Warning System which applies the brakes automatically if a red light is passed at speeds up to 75mph and we have given a commitment that these will be installed by the end of 2002," he said.

"The other system people have been calling for is Automatic Train Protection. This works at all speeds but the problem is it's very difficult to fit to our existing track infrastructure.

"We are fitting it where we are doing track renewal work but to fit it to existing lines could take up to ten years."