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Stonehaven derailment: Line reopens after three months

Alex Hynes, managing director of Scotland's Railway, says engineers have worked round the clock in a complex operation.

The rail line between Aberdeen and Dundee has reopened nearly three months after a train crash which left three people dead.

The driver, a conductor and a passenger died when the Aberdeen to Glasgow service derailed near Stonehaven on 12 August after heavy rain.

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

Network Rail has been laying hundreds of metres of replacement track as part of a "complex" repair operation.

The derailment took place when the 06:38 service struck a landslip 1.4 miles north east of Carmont.

Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died, and six other people were injured.

Police Scotland Brett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris StuchburyPolice Scotland
Brett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris Stuchbury died after the train left the tracks

Alex Hynes, managing director of Scotland's Railway, said engineers had worked "around the clock" to reopen the line.

Transport Secretary Michael Matheson has thanked all those involved in the recovery and repair operations.

Network Rail admitted in an interim report in September 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.