Landslides and the Railways 

There has been much on the airwaves and in the papers about the dangers climate change induced landslides pose for the railways. A correspondent sent me THIS which shows that the same concerns have worried people in the railway industry, over the years. 

The paper covers the methods used to determine where conditions are suitable for landslides to occur. It does not present its results in sufficient detail to see whether the place where the recent derailment near Stonehaven was classed in its hierarchy of landslide possibilities. That was not its purpose.

But Network Rail and the BGS do have that information. This will show whether the area was a risk. But it will not tell you that a landslide will occur on a particular day. I suspect that predicting landslides is similar to predicting earthquakes!