Taskforces launched in Stonehaven crash wake

Network Rail has launched two independent task forces in response to the Stonehaven crash.

Former Met Office chief scientist Dame Julia Slingo will lead a review into the impact of heavy rainfall on the railway.

This will consider how data can be used to ensure future engineering decisions take local weather factors into account, as well as Network Rail’s use of forecasting and weather monitoring technology.

There view will also examine the extent to which the Governmentowned rail infrastructure management company has explored real-time weather recording.

Lord Robert Mair, emeritus professor of civil engineering at the University of Cambridge, will meanwhile spearhead an earthworks task force inv es tigating the management of railway cutting sand embankments.

This will look at past incidents, latest technologies and best practice from across the globe.

Driver Brett Mccullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie ,58, and passenger Christopher Stuch bury, 62, died when the 6:38am Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street train crashed into a landslide across the tracks near Stonehaven on 12 August following heavy rain. Six other people were injured.

Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said: “This is a stark reminder that we must never take running a safe railway for granted.”