The railway line between Aberdeen and Dundee will reopen on Tuesday as crews have finished repaired the track following August’s tragic derailment.
The railway has been shut since August 12, when an early morning ScotRail service connecting Aberdeen and Glasgow struck a landslip, leading to the devastating deaths of driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie and passenger Christopher Stuchbury.
The incident caused extensive damage to the track, bridge, embankments and drainage systems at the accident site at Carmont, near Stonehaven.
Network Rail say their engineers have been working around-the-clock since the incident, initially supporting the accident investigation before beginning work in September to recover the derailed train carriages and repair and reopen the railway.
The work has included building a new 900-metre road and temporary bridges over the surrounding farmland to bring specialist lifting equipment to the site and constructing a 600-tonne crawler crane to carefully lift the derailed carriages from the railway.
Half a kilometre of damaged track has been replaced, as have 70 metres of bridge parapets and 400 metres of telecoms cables relayed.
Enhanced drainage systems and new flood defences above and below the line will hopefully prevent another tragic landslip and new embankment beneath the accident site.
Alex Hynes, managing director of Scotland’s Railway, said: “We continue to work closely with accident investigators as we seek to learn the lessons of this tragedy and make our railway as safe as possible for our people and our passengers.
“Our thoughts continue to be with the families and friends of Brett, Donald and Christopher and with the other passengers and colleagues who were affected by the accident.
“Our engineers have been working around-the-clock to repair and reopen the railway and we thank all our customers and lineside neighbours for the understanding they have shown during this difficult and distressing event.”
