Network Rail criticised after cattle hit by train

A horrendous accident which saw a train plough into a herd of cattle could have been prevented, according to the farmer – who witnessed 11 of his heifers being killed.

Walter Dan die and his sons tried to phone the emergency number at Network Rail after the cattle broke through the fence between his field sat Le ariel aw,Broxbu rn and the main rail line between Airdrie and Edinburgh.

He said :“We first of all phoned 999, but the police put us onto the British Transport Police. When we tried the emergency number, it diverted to a multi-option answering machine system. They seemed more interested in getting names rather than preventing trains from hitting the cattle.”

Eleven of Dandie’s home bred in-calf Belgian Blue and Limousin heifers were killed by the train.

He said :“An em er gency number that is not answered quickly is not an emergency number. If we could have got through when we first saw the cattle on the line we might have been able to stop the train or at least slow it down.”

This point was taken up by land agent Kenny Robertson of Robertson Rural, Bathgate. In a letter to Network Rail boss Mark Car ne, Robertson also claimed he had previously called Net work Rail on behalf of a number of clients to complain about the dilapidated state of fences.

Robertson said nothing had been done in Dandie’s case until the morning following the incident, when a Network Rail squad arrived to repair fences.

“Horses and stable doors spring to mind,” he said.

Dandies aid he had worried the incident could have seen the train derail, threatening passengers.

The incident occurred after his cattle broke out of the grass field they were grazing and went into a field of spring barley adjacent to the railway.

Dandies aid :“Network Rail maintain boundary fences on grass fields, but they don’t look after fences between arable fields and their property. The fence at the side of the barley field is almost non- existent, the posts are all rotten.”

Apart from the dead cattle, Dandie said the flesh “had just melted off” the cattle which survived the incident and he believed they would all have aborted their unborn calves.

A Net work R ail spokesperson said: “The boundary fence at the location was intact prior to the incident and was being maintained in line with the current use of the adjacent field to grow crops.

“We understand the animals involved came through the arab le field next to the railway after escaping from another field and damaging a thirdparty fence line.

“If any land owner has concerns about the condition of our fencing, or if land use in an area is likely to change, we would encourage people to contact us so our maintenance staff can review our infrastructure and carry out any enhancement work required.”