Network Rail’s drainage systems are not used to “coping” with the amount of rain that fell prior to the Stonehaven derailment in Scotland earlier this year, according to chief executive Andrew Haines. Speaking at the Railway Industry Association Annual Conference on Friday, Haines said: “That convectional rainfall impact where you can get 75 to 100mm of rain in a very localised area within one or two hours – we don’t have drainage systems that are used to coping with that.”
The ScotRail service derailed on 12 August after striking a landslip following 48 hours of storms in the area. Repairs began in September, with work to fix the bridge and embankment damaged in the accident now complete. Track repairs started last month.
Haines said that since the derailment, Network Rail has been considering whether its infrastructure is “designed to deal with what are now quite frequent [weather] events”. In September, as part of its interim report into the derailment, the rail operator conceded that the majority of its railside infrastructure slopes are not up to modern standards.
Commissioned by the Department for Transport, the report adds that the derailment was caused by the train colliding with a “washed out pile of rock and gravel” on the line. It concludes that climate change and extreme weather is making it harder to manage or predict landslides.
As such, Network Rail has launched two taskforces, led by independent experts, as part of its long-term response to climate change and the challenge of maintaining its portfolio of earthworks, many of which date from the Victorian era.