UNION leaders have raised concerns over a near £100m "cut" to the railway infrastructure budget in Scotland over two years in the wake of the fatal rail derailment near Stonehaven.

According to Scottish Government budget data, the spend on rail infrastructure will drop from £534m in 2020/21 to £427m in 2022/23 and union leaders fear reduced spending is putting lives at risk. According to data seen by the Herald, there will be £74m drop in the next year alone with budgets dipping from £501m in this financial year.

The rail union RMT said the ministers were "playing fast and loose with people's lives" over what it called "swingeing" cuts.

Three people died when a train left the tracks after hitting a landslip at Carmont in August 2020.

An interim Rail Accident Investigation Branch report said a signaller was not aware of any obstruction on the line.

Driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died when the 06:38 Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street train derailed in August last year.

Last year Network Rail, the nationalised body that manages the rail infrastructure, such as the tracks and signals admitted that the impact of climate change on its network "is an area that is accelerating faster than our assumptions".

It said the fatal derailment showed that the industry must improve its response to extreme weather.

Transport Scotland has said it was unfair to make a year-on-year comparison as budgets are allocated on a five year basis and it fluctuations were based on how it work was phased.

According to the Office for Rail and Road regulator, Network Rail is due to spend £2.245bn over the five years to 2024.

The Herald:

READ MORE: Climate proofed? Landslips on two iconic Scots routes lead to new concerns over transport resilience

But union officials insist that it did not make sense that there has been a near £100m drop in spending over two years when there is a "desperate" need to pour finance into improving the infrastructure, borne out by the Stonehaven tragedy.

RMT Scottish regional organiser Gordon Martin said: "It's all smoke and mirrors. There is work that needs to be done.

"That infrastructure fund has been cut year on year. And we are already seeing redundancies in this sector in the supply chain."

He said that work plans had been scaled back for the next financial year when operational maintenance should be stepped up due to issues arising from climate change.

He said if work that is deemed necessary cannot go ahead "that is important risk for the travelling public on the railway network".

"It is totally unacceptable," he said. "It is unacceptable that skilled workers are facing the dole when there is plenty of work for them."

He said he had warned that lack of continuity of work was leading to skilled infrastructure workers leaving the industry to make more money as delivery drivers.

"Current work is falling down because they can't get the labour," he said. "There is a perfect storm coming.

"My concern is that if they don't carry out they rail enhancements my fear is we could see a Carmont situation again. Because the purpose of these renewals is to improve resilience and if that doesn't happen, well, the consequences can be severe."

In July, last year it was recorded that Network Rail Scotland saved more than £46 million in one year as it looked to deliver £347 million efficiency savings over five years.

RMT said the final report into the rail disaster at Carmont which is expected in January 2022 is likely make recommendations for the Scottish Government and Network Rail Scotland to increase infrastructure spending to ensure that a derailment like the one at Carmont is never allowed to happen again.

Commenting on the cut, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “These swingeing cuts to the rail budget in Scotland are simply staggering.

“The Scottish Government needs to stop playing fast and loose with people’s lives and ensure that the rail network in Scotland is fit for purpose.

“The safety of rail workers and passengers should be paramount and it is utterly reckless for the Scottish Government to make these cuts before we know the full recommendations following the rail disaster at Carmont and I am calling on the Government to reconsider."

The final report into the crash, which had been expected this autumn, will not be published until January.

The train had turned back due to another landslip when it hit a landslip at Carmont after heavy rain.

The Herald:

Three years ago, five passengers and two crew were on board when a train came off the track at Loch Eilt part of the West Highland Line as hundreds of tonnes of mud and stone slid down from a hillside. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) found that Network Rail’s processes for managing landslip risk "did not take account of the hazard caused by rapidly melting snow". 

The driver was only four seconds from impact before the debris could be seen and the emergency braking was too late.

The interim report said the train hit washed-out rocks and gravel.

The driver was told he could run at normal speed before the accident. Data from the on-train data recorder (OTDR) showed it was travelling at about 73mph (117km/h), within the normal range for the line.

Following the accident, Network Rail, the nationalised body that manages the rail infrastructure, such as the tracks and signals, identified 584 sites that share similar characteristics to the Stonehaven line and conducted inspections for significant defects.

READ MORE: Video: Lessons for Network Rail after snow melt causes Glasgow-bound train derailment

Around 1% of the identified sites require sooner intervention than originally planned.

A Network Rail report commissioned by the UK Department for Transport following the Stonehaven accident assessed the current controls and management of thousands of miles of earthworks - the sloped ground beside railway tracks.

It saw hundreds of sites across the country being inspected by engineers, specialist contractors and helicopters ove three weeks to identify any issues requiring emergency intervention.

The report highlighted the need to deploy more technology across the network to predict failures.

And it said investment in better weather forecasting was needed to enable local decisions to be made in advance.

Four years ago when the Treasury announced rail funding for Scotland, the Scottish government said that was £600m less than needed and would result in serious damage to rail projects.

The UK government said the rail funding was was a "generous settlement".

A Transport Scotland spokesman said that funding was project driven and is allocated to Network Rail based on how they "profile" their works.

The spokesman said there had been an increase in the overall rail infrastructure budget for the five year rail funding period.

"The change in the Rail Infrastructure Budget is in line with Network Rail’s profile of work over the five years of 2019 to 2024," the spokesman said.

"Annual budget allocations are aligned to Network Rail’s projections of expenditure on operations, maintenance and renewals over the five years."

Network Rail was approached for comment.