Work to start on removing carriages from railway near Stonehaven

Network Rail says work to clear the railway line south of Stonehaven after last month's crash will begin this week.

The ScotRail service derailed on August 12 after striking a landslip with the loss of three lives - driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie and passenger Christopher Stuchbury.

Specialist engineers will use a 600-tonne crawler crane to carefully lift the derailed carriages from the railway over the coming days.

Contractors have constructed a new 900-metre road and temporary bridges over the surrounding farmland to bring the specialist lifting equipment to the site.

Plans are now in place to remove the vehicles in a delicate process, which is expected to last for several days.                             

Alex Hynes, managing director of Scotland’s Railway, said: “August 12 was a devastating day with the loss of Brett, Donald and Christopher in this tragic accident.

“While we will now begin the process of recovering the carriages and repairing the railway, we do so with a heavy heart.

“We will continue to work closely with the Rail Accident Investigation Branch throughout this recovery process so we can learn from this terrible event and help prevent similar accidents.”

Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity, visited the site today.

He said: “My thoughts continue to remain with the family and friends of those affected by this tragic incident.

“I’m here today to understand the scale of the work being undertaken and to show my, and the Scottish Government’s, continued support for those involved in the investigation, recovery and service restoration. 

“The RAIB investigation will ensure that any safety lessons are learned quickly and I will be interested to hear what comes of this and how Network Rail can take these forward in the future. An investigation of this type is so comprehensive and it will now take time to restore the site of the incident so rail services can be reintroduced as soon as possible.

“As we move towards the recovery phase and given the scale of this enormous challenge I would like to thank all those involved for their efforts undertaken at the site.”

Once the carriages have been removed from the site, engineers will be able to assess the extent of repairs required to the tracks and bridge damaged in the derailment.

Network Rail says that until those inspections are complete, no exact timescales can be placed on the reopening of the line for customers but it is likely to be a number of weeks.

ScotRail is operating a shuttle service between Aberdeen and Stonehaven to keep customers in the north east moving. The service, introduced on Monday August 31, calls at Aberdeen, Portlethen and Stonehaven, with some services extended to start or terminate at Inverurie or Dyce.

A replacement bus service remains in place between Dundee and Stonehaven. Cross-border operators are also running a replacement bus service between Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

After the incident on August 12, Network Rail introduced a range of additional safety measures.

As an immediate precaution, hundreds of sites nationwide with higher-risk trackside slopes, similar to Stonehaven, were inspected.

These inspections were carried out by both in-house engineers and specialist contractors, supplemented by helicopter surveys.

Network Rail has also launched two taskforces, led by independent experts, as part of its long-term response to climate change and the challenge of maintaining its massive portfolio of earthworks - which includes embankments and cuttings - many of which date from the Victorian era.