TSSA calls for urgent action on climate change on anniversary of Carmont tragedy

On the first anniversary of the Carmont derailment, rail union TSSA today (Thursday) called for the Scottish and British governments to ramp up action on climate change to prevent similar rail tragedies.   

Manuel Cortes, TSSA General Secretary, said: “Today we remember the driver, conductor and passenger who sadly died in the events at Carmont on Wednesday 12th August 2020. The deaths of Brett McCullough, Donald Dinnie and Chris Stuchbury were felt across our railway family and our thoughts are with their families today. 

“The sad truth is that we will see more such tragedies caused by climate change unless we act now. As we’ve seen just this week, extreme rainfall events, and their consequences, are becoming more common as our climate changes – and unless we take urgent action now to halt its progress those changes will become permanent and irreversible. 

“We cannot afford to wait any longer. Ahead of COP26, the government must pull out all the stops to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This must include decarbonising our transport networks and ensuring they can adapt to withstand the challenges that climate change brings.” 

Cortes added, “It's really important that Network Rail implement every single reccommendation in the report. Sadly, I fear that with a kamikake jobs cull and cuts across Network rail on the horizon, they will simply fail to do this.”