The company which owns the Hogwarts Express and offers steam train excursions across some of Britain’s most picturesque routes has been temporarily banned from operating following the ‘most serious’ case of a near collision so far this year.

Services by West Coast Railways have been suspended following the incident on March 7 in which a train failed to stop at a signal.

According to reports, a 100mph collision between a steam excursion and a First Great Western high speed train was missed by barely a minute.

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Fanfare: Actor Mark Williams aka Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter films, unveils the Hogwarts Express train at The Harry Potter Studio tour at Leavesden, where it is business as usual this Easter. But West Coast Railways, which own the train that was used in the films, have had services suspended after near miss

The nationwide ban by Network Rail is the first since privatisation, indicating the gravity of the incident.

WCR, based in Carnforth, Lancashire, owns a fleet of steam locomotives including Olton Hall, the train used as the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films.

The 78-year-old steam train that operated throughout the film franchise was installed at a new extension of the Harry Potter tour at Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden last month.

Platform 9 ¾, which gives Harry Potter fans the chance to climb aboard the train’s carriage and to pose with a luggage trolley as it disappears through the platform wall, is operating as normal.

The Network Rail ban means chartered services, including those on the West Highland Line taking in Fort William, and Settle to Carlisle line in the Yorkshire Dales, cannot run until May 15.

In the meantime WCR needs to take a number of steps to address Network Rail’s concerns.

The suspension notice states: ‘Network Rail has had concerns about WCR’s performance of its safety obligations for some time, and recent events lead Network Rail to believe that the operations of WCR are a threat to the safe operation of the railway.’

Network Rail told RAIL magazine that WCR had ‘demonstrated that its controls, communication and commitment following the recent [incident] were inadequate’.