Man charged after train derails at Kembla Grange near Wollongong

A man has been arrested a week after a train hit an allegedly stolen van that had been abandoned on a railway line and then derailed.

A man will face court after a passenger train hit an allegedly stolen van that had been left on the tracks near Wollongong and then derailed.

Allan Martin Simpson has been charged with nine offences following a police investigation into the crash on the south coast line, which saw four people including the train driver hospitalised.

Mr Simpson, 47, was arrested in the Wollongong suburb of Dapto about 1.30pm on Wednesday a week after the incident, following a public appeal for information.

Emergency services attended the train line on West Dapto Road at Kembla Grange about 4.05am on October 20, where they freed 13 passengers and crew members from the train.

Emergency services attended the train line on West Dapto Road at Kembla Grange about 4.05am on October 20. Picture: Madeline Crittenden

Four people were taken to hospital where they were treated for minor injuries.

Police were told the four-carriage train struck an unoccupied van, which had been abandoned on the track, before the front carriage of the train rolled onto its side.

Lake Illawarra Police District officers examining the scene said they found a go kart on a trolley in the rail corridor and a large hole in the security fence between the rail corridor and the raceway.

Police allege the van had been stolen earlier that morning from a home at the Shellharbour suburb of Flinders.

Mr Simpson was taken to Lake Illawarra Police Station on Wednesday, where he was charged with endangering the safety of a person on a railway and causing obstruction to a railway locomotive.

He was also charged with two counts of destroying or damaging property, larceny, driving a motor vehicle while disqualified, take and drive conveyance without consent of owner, entering enclosed land without lawful excuse and breaching his bail conditions.

Mr Simpson has been refused bail to appear at Wollongong Local Court on Thursday.

Originally published as Man charged after train derails at Kembla Grange near Wollongong