Britain’s electric railways need to adapt to climate warming, with travellers and freight facing increasing delays and disruption if they do not, a new report warns. In a letter to the Rail Minister, Huw Merriman MP, the report’s authors highlight that electric railways have an essential role in reducing emissions from transport and reducing dependence on volatile, international fossil fuel prices, but they also must be prepared for increasingly severe climate impacts.
Almost a year on from the UK’s first ever red weather warning for extreme heat, the report details how the 6,000km of overhead wires and structures that support electric trains could be under threat from hotter, drier summers, more heatwaves, wetter winters, stronger winds, more extensive flooding and sea level rise. The report by British and Swiss electrification engineers from the company, Furrer+Frey, identifies specific sections of track at risk, as well as making five recommendations to safe-guard against these future risk and deliver reliable railway that continues to power the economy.
The systematic review is the first of its kind to consider a full range of climate related risks to electrified railways, following Network Rail’s Resilience Taskforce, which looked at extreme heat only. The new Furrer+Frey report identifies five recommendations for Britain’s railway, including:
- Reviewing existing systems’ temperature ranges against climate projections
- Assessing the most vulnerable assets to identify any urgent renewals
- Implementing ‘Nature based Solutions’, for example, incorporating vegetation to provide shade and shelter, limit flooding, stabilise embankments and limit coastal erosion.
- Increase remote monitoring regimes to aid a shift towards risk-based maintenance
- Further research into the impacts and potential solutions to climate impacts, for example, in advanced materials, nature based solutions and the performance of materials in extreme weather conditions.
Co-author, Noel Dolphin, Fellow of Permanent Way Institute for Rail Infrastructure Engineering and Managing Director of Furrer+Frey GB, said: “Getting more people and freight onto electrified rail is vital in mitigating climate change. But at the same time rail needs to adapt to climate threats that we know are here. Last summer we saw how rail lines had to be closed or speeds restricted as our overhead wires sagged from the extreme heat – disrupting business and livelihoods across the country. Climate impacts add risk to every sector of our economy and every mode of travel, but the solutions we provide will be specific to rail – what we have done is identify the potential threats and opportunities, as well as how to manage these risks across the network. It’s not just about extreme heat – other weather extremes will become increasingly normal, so we need to ensure our systems are designed with that new, and more volatile, ‘normal’ in mind. Our report shows how we can build climate resilience in now by making changes to how we maintain, renew and enhance electrification equipment.”
Co-author, Rob Daffern CEng MEng MImechE, added: “The key point for governments to understand is the earlier we act, the better value for money; the more it is part of the bread-and-butter of rail maintenance, renewal and enhancements, the better value; if we a have a rolling programme of electrification and renewal that factors these in, even better still. Electrification is a vital part of our efforts to decarbonise rail and decarbonise transport from a renewable energy grid.”
Modern lines, such as HS1 and forthcoming HS2 are highlighted as already being designed to withstand very high temperatures. Older lines highlighted for review in the report include sections of lines in London, Essex, Manchester and Glasgow. This includes sections of the strategic West Coast Mainline between core cities including Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, and the Great Eastern Main Line between London and East Anglia’s major commuter belt and seaports.
The report can be downloaded from https://issuu.com/furrerfrey-gb/docs/climate_resilience_in_rail_electrification_white_phttps://news.railbusinessdaily.com/electric-railways-need-to-prepare-for-warming-climate-warn-experts/