The Duke of Rothesay is visiting the site of the Stonehaven train derailment today.
Prince Charles is in Scotland holidaying at Balmoral Castle and made the trip to meet and thank emergency responders who were among the first on the scene of the incident on Wednesday.
The tragic train accident killed three people, driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62.
Six people were also injured when the carriages of the 6.38am Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street Scotrail service derailed near Stonehaven amid heavy rain and landslips.
Investigators remain on scene today as they look at what caused the biggest rail tragedy in Scotland in almost 30 years.
Scotland’s Lord Advocate has asked Police Scotland, British Transport Police and the Office of Rail and Road, the independent regulator, to conduct a joint investigation into the accident.
It will be carried out under the direction of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and will run in parallel to the independent safety investigation being carried out by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.
Scottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson, UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps and Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines all visited the site of the crash on Thursday.
The UK Government minister said it was “far too soon” to say if cutbacks to Network Rail could have contributed to the crash.
He warned against jumping to conclusions, but added: “My observation is that a flash flood seems to have wreaked havoc at the scene behind us.
“Rail, in general, has an enormous budget – £46 billion –over what’s called a controlled period. It’s record sums of money, we’ve never spent more on our railways. But I don’t want to get into speculation, let’s find the facts.”
Mr Shapps has ordered Network Rail to carry out an urgent resilience review of areas affected by recent poor weather, and issue a report this month.
He has also requested a wider assessment of the impact of the weather on the entire rail network, resulting in an interim report by September 1 and a final analysis in the autumn.
