Derailment probe starts

INVESTIGATIONS into a derailment caused by a landslip at Loch Eilt in January have begun.

On Monday January 22, a passenger train travelling between Arisaig and Glenfinnan struck a landslip, causing the leading carriage to derail.

The five passengers on board escaped uninjured.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said: ‘The accident happened in darkness following a period when significant snow melt occurred at the same time as moderately heavy rainfall.

‘The landslip originated above the railway boundary. A proportion of the several hundred tonnes of material that slipped was deposited on the railway. This destroyed a section of a fence installed recently to protect the railway from loose boulders rolling down the adjacent slope.’

The investigation will seek to identify the sequence of events which led to the accident and will consider arrangements for protecting the railway from landslip debris at the site, Network Rail’s procedures for managing the effects of adverse weather and any other underlying factors.

The investigation is independent of any investigation by the railway industry or by the industry’s regulator, the Office of Rail and Road.

The RAIB will publish its findings, including any recommendations to improve safety, at the conclusion of our investigation.

This report will be available on its website.

SCOTRAIL engineers supervised the removal of the train derailed by the recent mudslide at Loch Eilt last week and on Sunday it was transported by lorry through Spean Bridge to Brodie Engineering in Kilmarnock for assessment.

The West Highland Line was closed for a week after tonnes of mud and stone covered the track in the landslip between Arisaig and Glenfinnan.

None of the five passengers on board were injured and all the carriages stayed upright but services were disrupted between Fort William and Mallaig.