New safety equipment being added to ageing ScotRail fleet involved in fatal Carmont crash

Stronger safety equipment to cut the risk of trains being derailed by landslides and other debris is to be added to the ageing ScotRail fleet involved in the fatal Carmont crash, Scotland on Sunday has learned.

New heavy metal brackets, known as lifeguards, will be installed in front of the front wheels of the 40-year-old Inter7City “High Speed Trains” (HSTs) which operate on the Edinburgh and Glasgow to Aberdeen and Inverness routes.

They are designed to prevent small obstacles from getting under the wheels and causing a train to come off the tracks.

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The move follows the UK Department for Transport’s rail accident investigation branch (RAIB) report into derailment near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire in 2020 recommending that HST owners “investigate the feasibility of strengthening the lifeguards on HST power cars to better protect the wheels from obstacles.”

Three people were killed in the Carmont derailment in August 2020. Picture: RAIBThree people were killed in the Carmont derailment in August 2020. Picture: RAIB
Three people were killed in the Carmont derailment in August 2020. Picture: RAIB

The train’s driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie and a passenger, Christopher Stuchbury, were killed after it hit debris washed from a wrongly-built drain onto the track after intense rainfall.

The report, published a year ago, said the train’s lifeguards – vertical steel blades – had less than the half the strength of those on modern trains.

However, it also said: “Although a stronger modern lifeguard may have been better able to move sufficient washout debris out of the path of the leading wheelset to prevent derailment, RAIB had insufficient evidence to determine the likelihood of this happening.”

ScotRail said fitting the new lifeguards on its 25 HSTs would be completed by August “dependent on the delivery of the required materials as scheduled”.

A lifeguard on the rear power car of the ScotRail train which crashed in 2020. Picture: RAIBA lifeguard on the rear power car of the ScotRail train which crashed in 2020. Picture: RAIB
A lifeguard on the rear power car of the ScotRail train which crashed in 2020. Picture: RAIB

Alex Hynes, managing director of Scotland’s Railway, which comprises ScotRail and Network Rail Scotland, said: “The trains are safe to operate.”

The stronger lifeguards were among measures discussed by the Carmont Rolling Stock Recommendations Steering Group, established by the Scottish Government last August to consider the RAIB report’s recommendations for HSTs, such as how to reduce the risks of operating a train built before modern crashworthiness standards were introduced nearly 30 years ago.

Kevin Lindsay, Scottish organiser of train drivers’ union Aslef, who has previously called for the HSTs to be withdrawn by the third anniversary of the crash in August, said: “We welcome the new lifeguards, but this is part of the work being discussed at the Carmont HST steering group and it's only part of a package of improvements that are under consideration.”

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Meantime, Mr Hynes said sand-spreading equipment to reduce train wheels slipping on fallen leaves will to be installed on part of another ScotRail fleet by this autumn.

ScotRail's class 170 diesel fleet will be fitted with sanders to help prevent wheel slip from fallen leaves. Picture: ScotRailScotRail's class 170 diesel fleet will be fitted with sanders to help prevent wheel slip from fallen leaves. Picture: ScotRail
ScotRail's class 170 diesel fleet will be fitted with sanders to help prevent wheel slip from fallen leaves. Picture: ScotRail

It comes after Scotland on Sunday revealed last month that nearly half of its HSTs fleet was out of action last autumn because of the failure to equip them with sanders and wheel-slide prevention equipment.

Now ScotRail is to add sanders to its Class 170 fleet which operate on the same routes as the HSTs. A spokesperson said: "The aim is for the first batch to be fitted by the autumn with the full fleet completed in the first quarter of 2024.”

Kevin Lindsay of Aslef said: “This is a long overdue fitment but it's something that should improve the performance of the 170 units during the leaf fall season.

"These type of sanders should be rolled out to all trains that don't have them already.”

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