Rail bosses: Another landslide will happen
They ‘can’t afford’ to fix network, says crash report
RAIL bosses have warned they cannot fully prevent landslides similar to the one that caused the fatal crash near Stonehaven.
Network Rail said it could not afford to make sure all ‘substandard’ trackside inclines are safe for trains.
Three people died last month after a ScotRail service from Aberdeen to Glasgow derailed near Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, when it hit debris washed onto the track following heavy rain.
In an interim report yesterday, Network Rail also warned climate change is making railways more dangerous.
The company is improving the management of its infrastructure but ‘we expect there will still be earthwork failures as a result of challenging weather’.
‘Many failures’ will be prevented, however, and areas with ‘the highest risk of failure and consequence’ are being targeted for action, Network Rail insisted.
It added: ‘It is simply not economically viable to strengthen all substandard infrastructure slopes.’ Network Rail is investigating the use of technology to help highlight areas where action is most urgently required. The
Department for Transport, which commissioned the report, said that in the period 2019-24, Network Rail is investing £1.3billion in strengthening the railway’s resilience to extreme weather.
This compares with £550million in 2009-2014 and £952million in 2014-2019.
Driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie and passenger Christopher Stuchbury died in the accident on August 12.
Network Rail has since conducted 584 inspections at sites which share some of the characteristics of the crash location. No issues ‘requiring emergency intervention’ were found but defects that have ‘deteriorated and require action sooner than originally planned’ were identified at ‘around 1 per cent of the sites’. Network
Rail has introduced rules requiring signallers to stop trains on lines affected by severe weather until an inspection has been carried out by ‘a competent engineer’.
Kevin Lindsay, of train drivers’ union Aslef, said: ‘This report raises rather more questions than answers.
‘Why, for instance, has it taken the loss of three lives for the Tory Government at Westminster to ask for a report of this nature from Network Rail, when those of us who work in the rail industry have known about these problems – and called for action to put them right – for many years?’
A preliminary report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch into the crash found that following reports of a landslip, the signaller cleared the train to travel back in the direction it had come from. It then struck a different landslip and derailed.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: ‘The independent investigation will enable us to understand exactly what went wrong, and make sure it does not happen again.’
Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said: ‘As the report published today shows, earthworks and drainage infrastructure, some of which are more than 150 years old, prove to be a real challenge as the country experiences more heavy rainfall.’
‘A real challenge to the country’