‘Scots rail safety warning as Network Rail admit Stonehaven crash fails‘
Taking time off from Ferrymaggedon, the Herald’s Martin Williams has a piece today on the Stonehaven rail crash, fuelled by RMT’s call for corporate manslaughter charges against Network Rail and pointing out that they have completed only 2 of the 20 ‘vital recommendations‘ made after the 2020 crash.
Why are the RMT not calling for the UK Government, Department of Transport, in London, and the minister responsible at the time, Grant Shapps, to be charged? The buck always stops with SNP ministers in Scotland, see child deaths in a hospital, so why not UK ones?
Why is Williams not clarifying the reserved governmental responsibilities here?
Why does that headline imply that the lessons are to be learned in Scotland when Network Rail is based in England and when the government minister is based in London?
In May 2022, the Herald tried to pin the accident on ScotRail and by association the Scottish Government:
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
furbished by Wabtec at its workshops. These works included the provision of power-operated doors.https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62274faa8fa8f526def96f5c/R022022_220310_Carmont_Synopsis.pdf
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 
So the liar who was involved in causing the crash by lowering standards. Tries to pin the blame on others. Others who have no control over the situation. Substandards introduced by Westminster Gov.
Lack of investment in railways in the North and Scotland. HS2 a total waste of £Billions. The North and Scotland starved of investment which would journeys times throughout Britain much faster. Less flights. Journey times in the North take twice as long as in the South. London transport is subsidised. Heathrow slots are subsidised by the UK Gov.
Anywhere but Heathrow. Congestion and chaos. Takes extra time to get through arrivals and departures. It is better to fly from local airports. Saves time and monies. Instead of overnight connections. Waste of time and monies because of Westminster travel and transport policies.
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The Trams have been successful. The construction by unionists was a failure. The accepted construction package was a failure. They could have been constructed by better methods. Unionist failure contributed to the fiasco. Ultimately the Trams are successful. They are a cheaper form of transport. Too cheap to recover all the expenditure.
Edinburgh Transport is subsidised by taxpayers. The wealthiest City in Scotland subsidised transport. People cannot use bus passes on the trams. Under-utilised and requires more buses. People can use bus passes on the airport bus but not on the trams from outwith Edinburgh City. Poor economic choices. All taxpayers in Scotland paid and subsidise the Trams. The bus journey to Edinburgh Airport is quicker than the Trams. The Trams a smoother journey.
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If I didn’t know any better I would be thinking, after watching ITV, that the fault for these deaths lie squarely with the SG. Nowhere, for the benefit of the viewers, was it explained that Network Rail was an entirely separate entity from the recently nationalised Scottish railways. I’d have no difficulty in believing this was deliberate, with the hope that the majority of the public was ignorant of the facts.
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Yes I saw on the front pages of the far right daily rags, there was no mention of the fact that ‘Network Rail’ is wholly the responsibility of the EngGov/cabal and therefore it’s they who are to blame for the terrible crash in Scotland, in which people needlessly died. I was on a train the other day, rarely travel these days at all, and there was a delay due to a poss fault. I was a bit nervous I have to say, I have little confidence in the EngGov controlled Network Rail, in keeping us safe.
Network Rail being controlled by England and when repairs, upgrades and essential maintenance are on their to-do list, Scotland will not be their priority and quite frankly, the BritNats and EngGov are using the deaths of people in Scotland due to their incompetance and neglect, as political fodder, by staying quiet about why this accident occurred.
Utterly despicable.
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The UK Government owned Network Rail will have a new name in 2024. Its new name ‘Great British Railways’ is so conspicuous it will be impossible for the Scottish media to point the finger of blame at the Scotish government. The name change could be on a shoogly peg.
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2023/05/great-british-railways-project-at-risk-reports-say/
“The move to scrap the project could be seen as a further snub from Sunak to his former boss Boris Johnson, who was behind the formation of GBR and described it as “the biggest shake-up of the railways since privatisation”.
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