"Hazardous Material" Alert at Inverness Station - 14th May 2024

[Stathern Jc]

Sorry I can't offer much here.
Am with numerous others not being allowed to leave Morrisons at Inverness at 1040, Police are outside saying that there is a Hazardous Material Incident at the station which is close by.
Obviously neither accurate nor appropriate to repeat any hearsay but presumably more will emerge in due course.

 

[Darandio]

ScotRail themselves are reporting it as a gas leak.

 

[800Travel]

Sorry I can't offer much here.
Am with numerous others not being allowed to leave Morrisons at Inverness at 1040, Police are outside saying that there is a Hazardous Material Incident at the station which is close by.
Obviously neither accurate nor appropriate to repeat any hearsay but presumably more will emerge in due course.

May be this:

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/inverness-20240514/ (link to the national rail site which displays the following)

Route(s) affected​

Trains between Inverness and Kyle of Lochalsh / Wick / Aberdeen / Edinburgh / Glasgow Queen Street

Description​

A gas leak near the railway at Inverness means all lines are closed. As a result, trains will be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised. This is expected until 14:00.

Customer Advice:

Services will start / terminate at:

• Aviemore
• Nairn
• Muir of Ord

Rail replacement buses have been requested to run from Aviemore and Inverness. Rail replacement buses will run from Perth. More information will follow when confirmed.

Check before you travel:

You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner.

For helpful advice if you need to travel on a rail replacement service, including accessibility information, please use this page.

You can find the location of your replacement bus by checking station signs or by searching for your station on our station information pages.

Compensation:

You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.

 

[Stathern Jc]

All customers and staff have been evacuated from Morrisons, over the footbridge into the Eastgate Shopping Centre with no access to the car park, station or outside at all.
Milburn Road remains closed and Police in attendance.

 

[BobbyBKinross]

We’re working with the emergency services who are dealing with an incident involving a freight train at Inverness Depot. All lines to/from Inverness are currently closed, and we’ll share more details as soon as we can (Network Rail Scotland on X (Formerly Twitter))

Link to NR Post quoted above

 

[realemil]

Police Scotland Inverness, tweeted the following as well:

Around 10.25am on Tues 14 May we were made aware of a gas leak from a train in Inverness. Emergency services are in attendance and the public are asked to avoid the Millburn Rd and Academy St areas. The Eastgate Shopping Centreand Morrisons have been evacuated as a precaution.

 

[800001]

Incident is in Milburn Yard, and a 1/4 mile exclusion zone around the leaking wagon.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

There's also a tweet from SGN saying the leak is from a train carrying gas for their ( i.e. SGN's ) network; plus multiple press reports all saying the same thing - gas leak from a train - which all seem to quote a Police Scotland press release.

I was unaware that gas for the mains supply was moved by rail anywhere?

 

[68000]

Refrigerated containers so probably the Tesco train

 

[Peter Mugridge]

This is what SGN are saying, though:

Are they just gassing talking rubbish?

We’re responding to a gas escape involving a train carrying tanks which supply our network. We're working with
@PoliceScotland & @ScotRail to resolve the incident as quickly as possible. ScotRail services in and out of #Inverness station have been cancelled until further notice.

 

[Darandio]

This is what SGN are saying, though:

Are they just gassing talking rubbish?



View attachment 158126

They sometimes have a couple of tanks on the Tesco service. Tanks go forward to Wick area by road I believe.

 

[hwl]

There's also a tweet from SGN saying the leak is from a train carrying gas for their ( i.e. SGN's ) network; plus multiple press reports all saying the same thing - gas leak from a train - which all seem to quote a Police Scotland press release.

I was unaware that gas for the mains supply was moved by rail anywhere?

LPG for gas network injection for calorific adjustment (so it meets minimum energy density levels)?

This is mostly done near oil refinery's using surplus LPG (Humberside, S. Wales, Cheshire...)

 

[Adrian Barr]

They sometimes have a couple of tanks on the Tesco service. Tanks go forward to Wick area by road I believe.

I found a picture of one here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/graeme8665/48444564297/

 

[66701GBRF]

Faulty valve on the tank, has been made safe and lines reopened.

 

[Dr Hoo]

There have been previous threads discussing the movement of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in tank containers to supply ‘isolated’ former ‘town gas’ networks in towns such as Wick. This is a long-standing flow from Daventry to Inverness, albeit in modest quantities alongside supermarket goods.

 

[matchmaker]

I found a picture of one here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/graeme8665/48444564297/

Goodness. Just about to pass my house!

 

[ruaival]

There's also a tweet from SGN saying the leak is from a train carrying gas for their ( i.e. SGN's ) network; plus multiple press reports all saying the same thing - gas leak from a train - which all seem to quote a Police Scotland press release.

I was unaware that gas for the mains supply was moved by rail anywhere?

Found this elsewhere online - https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/171575-liquified-natural-gas-by-rail/

LNG returned to rail in Scotland a couple of years ago, supplying Wick and Thurso which are isolated from the gas National Transmission System. It is conveyed in tanktainers on 4H47 0504 Mossend - Inverness then north by road to be injected into the local Scottish Gas Networks gas grid. The empty tanktainers return on 4D47 1310 Inverness - Mossend....

 

[InOban]

LNG being methane, is lighter than air and therefore disperses rapidly unlike LPG which is denser and so forms an explosive mixture at ground level.

The other isolated gas networks such as here in Oban, are supplied by road tanker, from Canvey island I think
There are plans to dilute it with a proportion of locally produced hydrogen.

 

[Stathern Jc]

Thankfully all sorted with, for most, little more than minor inconvenience.
Appreciation to all in attendance.
Morrisons were very good too. Customers guided to sit in the cafe area with open access to coffee machines.

 

[stuving]

Covered in this thread from last year:

Tank Containers on the Tesco Inverness Train

The southbound Tesco Inverness to Mossend train passed my northbound cl170 at Carr Bridge today. I was surprised to see the rear two flats were both carrying tank containers. Whilst I have not seen this train for some time I have not read anywhere of it carrying traffic other than for Tesco...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[father_jack]

View attachment VID-20240514-WA0001.mp4
For info video was from Reddit and is a long distance recording of the tanker which was loaded with what is said to be LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) venting itself upwards for about 50 feet in a similar manner to a steam locomotive blowing off.

 

[Zander trains]

I wonder when the Tesco train is going to leave then, will it leave tonight or wait till tomorrow

 

[Stathern Jc]

I wonder when the Tesco train is going to leave then, will it leave tonight or wait till tomorrow

No alternative path showing on RTT when I looked a few minutes ago.
What are the crewing implications of a delay of this magnitude?

 

[Deepgreen]

Why on earth couldn't they just say 'a gas leak' rather than the more sinister and worrying 'hazardous materials'? Why does everything have to be dressed up in semi-jargon...

 

[father_jack]

Why on earth couldn't they just say 'a gas leak' rather than the more sinister and worrying 'hazardous materials'? Why does everything have to be dressed up in semi-jargon...

Correct. Whatever has gone wrong it has gone wrong in the way that was intended to not cause a catastrophe.

 

[Bow Fell]

Why on earth couldn't they just say 'a gas leak' rather than the more sinister and worrying 'hazardous materials'? Why does everything have to be dressed up in semi-jargon...

Because someone on here would have said why couldn’t they have said ‘Hazardous materials’ instead of saying a ‘gas leak’

 

[najaB]

Why on earth couldn't they just say 'a gas leak' rather than the more sinister and worrying 'hazardous materials'? Why does everything have to be dressed up in semi-jargon...

My guess is that they initially knew that *something* was leaking but not what it was.

 

[Deepgreen]

My guess is that they initially knew that *something* was leaking but not what it was.

From a gas tanker...?

Because someone on here would have said why couldn’t they have said ‘Hazardous materials’ instead of saying a ‘gas leak’

I doubt it, but if they did, a robust response may have ensued...

 

[DarloRich]

From a gas tanker...?

Personally if I saw a tanker carrying warning/hazard symbols leaking like the video above I wouldn't hang about with my gas analyser to work out exactly what was coming out and then make sure an extremely accurately worded tweet was released to the wider world. I would just get people to minimum safe distance and summon the professional services to sort it out but each to their own!

 

[66701GBRF]

People find any old reason to criticise these days. Perhaps the police that were at Morrisons (where that quote seems to have originated) didn’t actually know what was leaking.