The railway line between Aberdeen and Dundee will reopen on Tuesday (3 Nov) following the completion of work to repair the line following August’s tragic derailment.
The line has been closed since August 12, when the 06:38 ScotRail Aberdeen-Glasgow service struck a landslip. Driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie and passenger Christopher Stuchbury all lost their lives in the tragic incident.
The incident caused extensive damage to the track, bridge, embankments and drainage systems at the accident site at Carmont, near Stonehaven.
Network Rail engineers have been working around-the-clock since the incident, firstly supporting the accident investigation before beginning work in September to recover the derailed train carriages and repair and reopen the railway.
The work has included:
- Building a new 900-metre road and temporary bridges over the surrounding farmland to bring specialist lifting equipment to the site.
- Constructing a 600-tonne crawler crane to carefully lift the derailed carriages from the railway.
- Replacing over 500 metres of damaged track, 70 metres of bridge parapets and relaying 400 metres of telecoms cables.
- Repairing and enhancing drainage systems and flood defences above and below the line.
- Rebuilding the railway embankment beneath the accident site.
Alex Hynes, Managing Director of Scotland’s Railway, said: “We continue to work closely with accident investigators as we seek to learn the lessons of this tragedy and make our railway as safe as possible for our people and our passengers.
"Our thoughts continue to be with the families and friends of Brett, Donald and Christopher and with the other passengers and colleagues who were affected by the accident.
"Our engineers have been working around-the-clock to repair and reopen the railway and we thank all our customers and lineside neighbours for the understanding they have shown during this difficult and distressing event."
