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Professor John Robertson OBA

In the Herald, today:

Stonehaven rail crash: Union sparks concern for Scots railways – A row has erupted over the safety of Scotland’s railways as it emerged key improvements to drainage systems demanded by investigators have yet to be completed five years on from the Stonehaven rail tragedy. The Aberdeen to Glasgow train derailed at Carmont in Aberdeenshire on August 12, 2020 after hitting a landslide following heavy rain in an area where a drainage system was incorrectly installed.

There was no suggestion made, in the inquiry, that the train itself was responsible, in any way, for the accident, yet in the Herald report we see:

Of course, the trains are the responsibility of Scotrail and indirectly the Scottish Government.

However, that is by no means the major concern in this Herald report. Throughout there is no mention at all of the key fact that responsibility for the rail infrastructure is entirely with Network Rail and that:

Network Rail is responsible to the [UK] Secretary of State for Transport, currently Heidi Alexander (Labour) and at the time of the accdident in 2020, Grant Shapps (Con), as it is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the [UK] Department for Transport.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/network-rail

The reader is left with the impression that this ‘Network Rail’ may well be, in the absence of clarification, the responsibility of the Scottish Government. At the time of the accident, in 2023, BBC Scotland’s James Cook tried the same trick in a attempt to shift blame onto the SNP Government by shouting at Michael Matheson, Scottish Transport Secretary as if he was responsible.