The former rail chief appears not to have read the UK Government’s Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report on the above accident in August 2020:
A former rail company director has raised concerns over the continued use of the model of train involved in the Stonehaven crash, calling for speed limits to be introduced for the trains until they are removed from service. Former Network Rail maintenance director John Carson, who was also connected to the Paddington inquiry, has raised safety issues over the continued use of the High Speed Train locomotives and carriages like those in the Scottish derailment. He has linked it to the Paddington tragedy, a crash involving two trains including an HST at Ladbroke Grove in London in 1999, when 31 were killed and 417 injured.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/20155857.former-rail-chief-stonehaven-crash-train-call/
If true, his assessment places responsibility at the door of the Scottish Government and allows the opposition parties an easy scalp. But the RAIB report is clear:
Train 1T08 derailed because it struck debris washed out from a 15 metre length of steeply sloping drainage trench. This is evidenced by CCTV images from the train, grooves cut through the debris, the absence of derailment marks on the track on the approach to the debris and marks indicating that the leading wheelset had derailed immediately after the debris field.
The train that derailed at Carmont was a high speed train set (HST) with four coaches and two power cars. HSTs were first introduced into service in the mid-1970s and are generally seen as having a good safety record. Although they pre-date a number of modern standards that are relevant to train behaviour in derailments and collisions, they are authorised to operate on the UK’s mainline network. The coaches that formed this particular set had been recently
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62274faa8fa8f526def96f5c/R022022_220310_Carmont_Synopsis.pdf
furbished by Wabtec at its workshops. These works included the provision of power-operated doors.
So, the train bought by Scotrail was not to blame but the track inspection and maintenance, by Network Rail a UK Government responsibility, was. What was the Herald’s rail chief’s job before retiring?
He was Network Rail’s maintenance director!
At the time, Reporting Scotland attempted to pass the buck to the Scottish Government. Carson’s biased reporting will be snapped up by out MSM.
Carson is a rentagob who has commented in the MSM regularly, attacking the SNP Government on its infrastructure projects.
Here he is on the Edinburgh trams: https://www.insider.co.uk/news/edinburgh-tram-inquiry-john-carson-12295822
When he retired, he left behind the culture responsible for lowering inspection and maintenance standards as the UK Government squeezed their funds.
Talking-up Scotland 
Scotland has as usual been an afterthought when it comes to maintenance of the rail network by the English controlled network rail. People died because of lack of maintenance. Yet no one is held responsible, and now they are attempting to blame the Scottish government, how dare they! All very convenient a few weeks after Scottish rail is taken back into public hands. I fear that the English controlled rail network in Scotland could be even more neglected now, it’s not a good situation to be at the mercy of a hostile English government controlling Scotland’s rail network.
I hope safety is not compromised I really do.
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OF COURSE HE WILL HES A UNIONIST
NEVER SHY OF LYING TO PUBLIC IF IT BETTERS HIS POLITICAL POCKET
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I meant to share this before. Never ceases to amaze how social media is considered to be full of fake news but the not the mainstream media.
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-credibility-journalistic-sources-affect-news.html
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Thanks for this – and also for the link to what looks like an interesting site.
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““When I looked at the aerial photographs of Stonehaven I immediately thought of Paddington. The similarities were uncanny” – Aside from the terrain, rural v urban, the weather, the blind bends, speed of approach, etc., at the Stonehaven incident ?
Eh ?
The propaganda theme for the last few months has been transport, rail, ferries and by weird extrapolation bus passes.
So Brian Donnelly’s “Exclusive” is a contrivance to revisit Carson’s opinion from over a year ago, not to convey anything new or informative, rather than to fulfill his propaganda obligations during the current rail dispute.
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There’s no question the cause of the derailment was down to Network Rail.
The RAIB have made 20 recommendations in their report.
7 of the 20 relate to the type of train used.
HSTs should’ve been retired from service.
They’re not as safe as modern trains in a collision.
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A year out from the referendum, and the lies are coming thick and fast.
I had seen, some time ago, about UN media parameters allowed during independence plebiscites. Can no longer find the article, but we need to get on top of the colonial nature of news management that is the norm in Scotland, before next year.
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