IT HAS taken almost four months for the rail authorities to clear up after one of their trains ploughed into a herd of cattle – and to take action to prevent a similar incident happening in the future.

The land agent involved in the case said this week there were lessons to be learnt for all farmers with livestock enterprises adjacent to railway lines.

After reporting that the dividing fence between Walter and Margaret Dandie’s Learielaw farm at Bathgate and the railway line had now finally been renewed, Kenny Robertson of Robertson Rural, Bathgate, said that farmers should be aware that they had obligations if any boundary fence was in disrepair.

Anyone who knowingly puts livestock in a field where there was a broken down fence could be liable if there was an accident as a result of the animals breaking out onto the railway line, he warned.

Following the accident in early May, where 12 of the Dandie’s home bred in-calf Belgian Blue and Limousin heifers were killed by a train on the Edinburgh/Airdrie line, Mr Robertson has been chasing up the rail authorities in order to sort matters out.

In the past four months he has been dealing with various rail organisations, including the Office of Road and Rail Regulator, in an effort to prevent a similar calamity happening again: “The lesson for anyone caught in a similar situation is do not give up. No one in authority seemed to care or accept the seriousness of the situation and take immediate and appropriate action to prevent a possible re-occurrence.

“All the time that no remedial action was taking place, I was petrified that a similar incident could take place with even worse consequences," said Mr Robertson.

The first battle with the rail authorities was over fencing between land that was in crop and the railway line, with the railway not accepting that rotations could see livestock occupying the same fields twelve months later. Even after winning that argument, another problem arose when the rail fencing squad came on site.

It emerged that the previous workers involved in disposing of the carcases of the animals killed in the accident had just hidden some of the bits in the undergrowth in the railway embankment.

“When the fencing people came across these carcases – some hidden under polythene sheets – they downed tools until the various bits had been removed,” he reported.

When the accident happened, the Dandies were critical of the slow response on the Emergency line, with Walter stating: “An emergency number that is not answered quickly is not an emergency number. If we could have got through when we first saw the cattle on the line we might have been able to stop the train or at least slow it down.”

From his experience of the past months, Mr Robertson described the response he had had from the Office of Road and Rail Regulator as 'pathetic and unhelpful' with a mix of obfuscation and delay adding to his frustration.