UK’s railways can no longer cope with the effects of the climate crisis: what can be done?

[Struner]

Britain’s railways can no longer cope with the effects of the climate crisis, a senior rail executive has warned.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...e-with-effects-climate-change-warns-rail-boss

Britain’s railways can no longer cope with the effects of the climate crisis, a senior rail executive has warned.

Extreme weather events including heatwaves, storms and flooding have damaged infrastructure and halted thousands of services across the UK this year.

Alex Hynes, the managing director of Scotland’s railway, said more investment would be needed to future-proof the railway against rising temperatures.

“The railway in this country can no longer cope because of climate change,” he said.
Calling for more to be done on decarbonising rail, he told the Railway Industry Association conference in London: “We have a vested interest in making this work.”

In July, hot weather forced trains to run at maximum speeds of 20mph (32km/h) on parts of the railway network, resulting in many services being cancelled and rail operators telling people not to travel.
Trains were slowed due to the risk of tracks buckling in the heat and causing a derailment. Extreme temperatures can also result in overhead electric lines drooping and being damaged by trains.

Hynes said the rail industry needed to build tracks resilient at 40C (104F) in the rest of the UK and 35C in Scotland. Steel in rails is currently stress-tested at 28C.

More than 1,000 trains were cancelled in Scotland alone due to record temperatures in summer 2018. This was reduced to 200 in 2019 despite an even hotter summer, after a £4m investment in track resilience.

Hynes suggested the rail industry should see the commercial opportunity in the climate emergency and tell passengers when they are taking a greener form of transport. “There is money to be made … We need to tell people they are on an electric train,” he said.
However, Anthony Smith, the chief executive of Transport Focus, told the conference that according to the independent passenger watchdog’s research, most passengers would prefer an on-time diesel to a late-running electric train.
Although railways have long been susceptible to weather-associated delays, from snow in winter to problems with wet leaves in autumn, Network Rail is expecting to invest billions more to mitigate the effects of more frequent and extreme events.

Much of its most recent climate change adaptation plan was written in the aftermath of extensive flooding in 2015, including the closure of the Devon-Cornwall line after the track was washed away at Dawlish. Heavy rainfall and flooding remain the most significant problems in parts of the rail network, notably Wales.

However, Network Rail data for 2018-19 showed total delays ascribed to high temperatures surpassed the combined total of flooding, snow, fog and cold even before the more widespread disruption in July.

Plenty of work to be done then.

Edited to get rid of my tablet mess.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Yes some resilience now needs to happen at every upgrade/line electrified etc

 

[geoffk]

(I was going to start a new thread but saw this one had just been started).

As many of you know, heavy rain caused flooding in parts of Yorkshire and elsewhere yesterday, closing lines and many are still closed this morning. The Calder Valley line was closed by flooding at Walsden and there were no trains through Todmorden from around 14.00 hours. We can't do anything about the weather in the short term and no doubt Northern staff have been doing their best in difficult circumstances, but I agree more could be done to reduce its effects. I've lived in the area for only 16 years but this is becoming a more frequent occurrence.

Whenever the line is closed at Walsden trains from Leeds are turned back at Hebden Bridge. The resignalling introduced as part of the Todmorden curve allows trains from Leeds to turn back at Tod but this never happens. No doubt it's easier to get buses to Hebden Bridge station than to Todmorden but that is of no help when the A646 road between the two is also flooded, as was the case yesterday. I understand that the booking clerk at HBD asked Network Rail Control if trains could run to Todmorden since the York - Blackpools were running normally but no replacement buses could run, but his request was declined.

At the western end, a crossover north of Littleborough at Summit West allows trains from Manchester to turn back there but, as it's worked by hand from a ground frame, it only gets used in an emergency. Local groups have been asking for years to have this fully signalled to allow regular turn-backs; this requires changes to Preston Power Box. It could have been done when the Tod Curve opened but now Network Rail may be reluctant to disturb it for a relatively infrequent event. The previous one was on 16th March.

So when the line floods at Walsden or in Summit Tunnel trains don't run between Hebden Bridge and Rochdale. Of course the real need is keep the water off the railway at Walsden where the river crosses underneath by Winterbutlee Tunnel.

Northern staff all seem sympathetic to these requirements and it’s clearly one for Network Rail to address. The Yorkshire Tiger bus from Rochdale to Halifax via Ripponden comes into its own when these events happen but it runs only every 70 minutes!

 

[DarloRich]

Surely the article is about:

• rail stressing
• drainage
• decarbonisation

But then senior railway executive suggest higher rail stressing temperature in Scotland and a bit more work on drainage isnt quite as sexy a headline!

 

[sikejsudjek]

As someone who experienced the flood of 2007 in Gloucestershire where we ended up without power, mains water or even basic transport for a few days, I can tell you that our infrastructure is a lot less resilient than you might think. Climate change is real, and it will increase the frequency of extreme events. Think it won't effect you ? Good luck on that one....

 

[Western Lord]

Whatever you believe about climate change, do not under estimate the effect of inadequate drainage due to more land being concreted over, inadequately maintained drains and inadequately maintained rivers. You could also take into account that there are far more people to be affected by floods than a hundred years ago and that everyone has a camera and instant worldwide communication and 24/7 news outlets craving material. A hundred years ago local floods would not have made the national press.

 

[Kingspanner]

Might be worth understanding the difference between weather and climate. All people are doing on here is suggesting that the weather we experience is no different to weather experienced over the past 50 years. And they would be right. This does not make them 'Climate Change Deniers'.
Now it might be that they are deniers, they'll speak for themselves, but please don't get all anxious because somebody dared to have a different view to you. And even if your view is ultimately proved right, and we are experience drastic climate change, the change will be gradual. The world will not end next year, the year after that, or indeed in any year. Climate changes have been affecting this planet for 4 Billion years. The only reason we are an island is due to climate change. The climate is and always will be changing. But gradually. Weather does not equal Climate.

You are right, the world will not end. in the sense that the planet is not in trouble. But we, and a lot of large mammals and other species could be erased in a remarkably short time. The consequences of temperature rise include rising sea levels, extreme weather events including drought, mass migrations of animals including us to escape famine, new and enlarged ranges for disease bearing creatures such as mosquitoes.
Where we have seen desperate migrants trying to get into Europe via the Med will pale into insignificance. What if the UK ends up with little rainfall and is desertified? What if we end up with a climate like Seattle? What if the Gulf Stream switches off and we get a climate like Finland? In any event we won't be growing food anything like we are now. It will be our turn to go cap in hand to other countries, we will be the refugees.
I personally don't want to chance it.

 

[Darandio]

What if the Gulf Stream switches off and we get a climate like Finland?

Or even colder. Many still automatically assume that if things keep getting warmer then we will follow suit here, it might not be the case. As you say, melt the ice and reduce the salinity then comes the risk of it shutting down. After all, it's happened before....

 

[Dunfanaghy Rd]

Might be worth understanding the difference between weather and climate. All people are doing on here is suggesting that the weather we experience is no different to weather experienced over the past 50 years. And they would be right. This does not make them 'Climate Change Deniers'.
Now it might be that they are deniers, they'll speak for themselves, but please don't get all anxious because somebody dared to have a different view to you. And even if your view is ultimately proved right, and we are experience drastic climate change, the change will be gradual. The world will not end next year, the year after that, or indeed in any year. Climate changes have been affecting this planet for 4 Billion years. The only reason we are an island is due to climate change. The climate is and always will be changing. But gradually. Weather does not equal Climate.

Where's the 'Like' button when you need it? Planet Earth doesn't give a damn about us, anymore than the Mammoth or Trilobites.
Pat

 

[DarloRich]

Where's the 'Like' button when you need it? Planet Earth doesn't give a damn about us, anymore than the Mammoth or Trilobites.
Pat

Correct. However we as modern man have a greater capacity than the Mammoth or Trilobites to cause the earth harm.

 

[Mag_seven]

climate change is real, and it will increase the frequency of extreme events.

Nah, you're talking rubbish mate - that Nigel Lawson says so and lets face it as an ex Tory Chancellor he must know more about climate change than lefty university professors.

 

[Western Lord]

Correct. However we as modern man have a greater capacity than the Mammoth or Trilobites to cause the earth harm.

The problem is. and increasingly will be, too many "modern men" (and women and children) on this planet. I've often wondered if anybody has calculated the effect of body heat from an increasing population on the global temperature (I'm old enough to remember when big old cinemas were only warm when there was a full house). It seems that many people have decided that they like the planet, more or less, in the state it is now and that we should engineer things to keep it that way, as if it is as easy as adjusting the central heating. Unfortunately, nature may have other ideas.

 

[bastien]

Might be worth understanding the difference between weather and climate. All people are doing on here is suggesting that the weather we experience is no different to weather experienced over the past 50 years. And they would be right. This does not make them 'Climate Change Deniers'.
Now it might be that they are deniers, they'll speak for themselves, but please don't get all anxious because somebody dared to have a different view to you. And even if your view is ultimately proved right, and we are experience drastic climate change, the change will be gradual. The world will not end next year, the year after that, or indeed in any year. Climate changes have been affecting this planet for 4 Billion years. The only reason we are an island is due to climate change. The climate is and always will be changing. But gradually. Weather does not equal Climate.

I smell a canned response here, given that it isn't really a reply to the quoted post which didn't mention the 'd' word at all.

 

[gazzaa2]

Might be worth understanding the difference between weather and climate. All people are doing on here is suggesting that the weather we experience is no different to weather experienced over the past 50 years. And they would be right. This does not make them 'Climate Change Deniers'.
Now it might be that they are deniers, they'll speak for themselves, but please don't get all anxious because somebody dared to have a different view to you. And even if your view is ultimately proved right, and we are experience drastic climate change, the change will be gradual. The world will not end next year, the year after that, or indeed in any year. Climate changes have been affecting this planet for 4 Billion years. The only reason we are an island is due to climate change. The climate is and always will be changing. But gradually. Weather does not equal Climate.

Exactly. Heavy rain isn't a new invention. Neither are storms, leaves, heat and snow. Climate change itself wasnt the point. The UK climate has always been unpredictable and had its extremities since the railway was invented.

 

[scotrail158713]

Might be worth understanding the difference between weather and climate. All people are doing on here is suggesting that the weather we experience is no different to weather experienced over the past 50 years. And they would be right. This does not make them 'Climate Change Deniers'.
Now it might be that they are deniers, they'll speak for themselves, but please don't get all anxious because somebody dared to have a different view to you. And even if your view is ultimately proved right, and we are experience drastic climate change, the change will be gradual. The world will not end next year, the year after that, or indeed in any year. Climate changes have been affecting this planet for 4 Billion years. The only reason we are an island is due to climate change. The climate is and always will be changing. But gradually. Weather does not equal Climate.

Yes - Milankovitch’s Stretch, Tilt, and Wobble theory proved this. But what we now realise is we’re accelerating the change at a far greater rate than is natural, so something needs to be done.
Wow, for once, I agree with Mr Hynes on something.

 

[farleigh]

But if we are going to be wiped out we won't need a more resilient railway. Silver lining.

 

[MalaiseForever]

Might be worth understanding the difference between weather and climate. All people are doing on here is suggesting that the weather we experience is no different to weather experienced over the past 50 years. And they would be right. This does not make them 'Climate Change Deniers'.
Now it might be that they are deniers, they'll speak for themselves, but please don't get all anxious because somebody dared to have a different view to you. And even if your view is ultimately proved right, and we are experience drastic climate change, the change will be gradual. The world will not end next year, the year after that, or indeed in any year. Climate changes have been affecting this planet for 4 Billion years. The only reason we are an island is due to climate change. The climate is and always will be changing. But gradually. Weather does not equal Climate.

They aren’t right. Look at the facts. Look at the data. Things are getting worse. There is no debate to be had. This is happening. End of.

 

[MalaiseForever]

I smell a canned response here, given that it isn't really a reply to the quoted post which didn't mention the 'd' word at all.

Indeed, very bizarre response.

 

[Taunton]

The line over the Somerset Levels has always been a problem, the flooding nowadays is actually better than it was one or two generations ago, when flooding over the line at Langport (in particular) was a regular winter event.

Now if you look on the web for old pictures of it, you will find pictures of steam trains old and older straightforwardly coming through the water. Look for "floods" halfway down this page http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/taunton-to-yeovil.html Doesn't happen so much now, but the multi-million pound wonders we now have are not allowed to put one flange into water. So far more disruption than previously.

 

[randyrippley]

The line over the Somerset Levels has always been a problem, the flooding nowadays is actually better than it was one or two generations ago, when flooding over the line at Langport (in particular) was a regular winter event.

Now if you look on the web for old pictures of it, you will find pictures of steam trains old and older straightforwardly coming through the water. Look for "floods" halfway down this page http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/taunton-to-yeovil.html Doesn't happen so much now, but the multi-million pound wonders we now have are not allowed to put one flange into water. So far more disruption than previously.

I've looked at those photos several times and wondered just how close to the firebox those floods got, and whether there was a risk of sucking water back into the pistons.

But you're right - the floods used to be far worse. I can remember many winters standing on Ham Hill and seeing what was effectively an inland sea from Martock to the coast

 

[Taunton]

I've looked at those photos several times and wondered just how close to the firebox those floods got, and whether there was a risk of sucking water back into the pistons.

Oh, it used to get up to ashpan level and beyond, and put the fire out. I've written about this here before. Locos though typically had enough steam left in the boiler to get from Langport to Taunton with no fire, go on shed there to have it relit and be oiled all round. And on they would go …

 

[markymark2000]

What do other countries do to help cope with extreme heat, wetness or leaves on the line which we could take onboard? Is the issue that all the preventative measures would cost so much, it's not worth doing, it's cheaper to fix the issues as/when they occur?

Drainage does need to be worked on in some places but as with most railway schemes, why do little things like drainage when you can build HS2 and Crossrail which combined will solve all of the UKs travel problems....

 

[al78]

What do other countries do to help cope with extreme heat, wetness or leaves on the line which we could take onboard? Is the issue that all the preventative measures would cost so much, it's not worth doing, it's cheaper to fix the issues as/when they occur?

Drainage does need to be worked on in some places but as with most railway schemes, why do little things like drainage when you can build HS2 and Crossrail which combined will solve all of the UKs travel problems....

What we class as extreme in the UK would be a seasonal event in other countries. In such countries, these "extremes" are part of the normal climatology so the infrastructure has to be resiliant enough to deal with it, otherwise it would go tits up many times a year every year.

In the UK, it is not seen as financially economical to build resiliance in the transport networks to deal with weather that (is assumed to) occurs once every 20 or 50 years, so we have infrastructure that is optimised for near-average conditions, at the expense of falling over when conditions depart significantly from average.

When it comes to climate change projections, the question is, are weather phenomena (i.e. floods, storms, heatwaves) that were once a 1 in 50 year event expected to become significantly more frequent, based on scientific estimates? If so, then questions need to be asked about whether the resiliance of the transport network (among others) needs to be improved in order to mitigate future consequences. Unfortuunately, human nature is such that planning for the future is negated in favour of the here and now (or is filed under someone elses problem), so I am skeptical anything meaningful will be done.

 

[randyrippley]

Funny thing is, much of the major drainage work on the Levels was actually done by Dutch engineers in the 1600s and 1700s. Somerset still has families with Dutch names such as Cornelius and Brooks (= Broekx in Dutch). The Romans did start it all off, while Muchelney and Glastonbury monks did a lot as well - but most of the major works were Dutch

 

[Howardh]

A lot of this flooding is man-made. Concreting over large amounts of land means the water has nowhere to soak away other than the over-loaded drains and rivers. Trees have been cut down in the catchment areas and again their roots hold back water (and trees use that water obviously). So what climate change there is is worsened by our stupidity in building without thinking.

There is one way water can be held back and that's to follow the example of beavers, could all upwater tributary streams have a small dam - just two natural or concrete boulders would do, during normal weather the water would go between them, but in heavy rain water would be held behind flooding the fields and then slowly flow through the gaps so you don't get the huge swell downstream?

 

[Howardh]

What we class as extreme in the UK would be a seasonal event in other countries. In such countries, these "extremes" are part of the normal climatology so the infrastructure has to be resiliant enough to deal with it, otherwise it would go tits up many times a year every year.
.

I was in Menorca when the September floods arrived and there was no way the local infrastructure coped with the sheer volume of water. I was "lucky" to be on the edge of it - coastal Spain really suffered; and last year Majorca got the brunt. These are annual "extremes" - the storms come as timetabled, the ferocity seems to increase. Interesting that after a slightly cooler summer, sea temperatures rose to well-above average temperatures in early Sept which may have been a factor in the immense downpours. When I was swimming in the sea in Ibiza in late September the sea temp was what you would expect in mid-August.

 

[reddragon]

Many of our railway embankments are built of a clay & ash combination that do not like these increasing weather extremes.

The railway culverts & drainage have not been maintained well over the years. They were also designed for the greenfield run off of the 19th century and cannot cope with the quicker storm responses since we concreted everywhere and cut down the trees.

The easiest option is to enforce planning on driveways - they are not allowed to drain to highway, they must be self contained with soak-aways; to re-forest moorlands; to enforce SUDS (sustainable urban drainage).

The problem is climate change is now happening at increasing speeds but nobody is acting and worse still regulators act as an obstruction to change.

 

[al78]

I was in Menorca when the September floods arrived and there was no way the local infrastructure coped with the sheer volume of water. I was "lucky" to be on the edge of it - coastal Spain really suffered; and last year Majorca got the brunt. These are annual "extremes" - the storms come as timetabled, the ferocity seems to increase. Interesting that after a slightly cooler summer, sea temperatures rose to well-above average temperatures in early Sept which may have been a factor in the immense downpours. When I was swimming in the sea in Ibiza in late September the sea temp was what you would expect in mid-August.

That sounds like it was an extreme event for them. Very occasionally, the Mediterranean islands are impated by medicanes (Mediterranean hurricane-like weather systems) which bring strong winds and heavy rain. It is a bit like the infrastructure in England struggled occasionally in the winter of 2013/14, when the jet stream was unusually persistently further south than normal, steering deep and damaging low pressure systems across highly populated areas.

 

[philthetube]

Sea temperature is at its highest in late September

 

[reddragon]

This is of course the main issue: -

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ed-by-poor-management-and-floodplain-building

“This is only a problem if you develop floodplains by building houses, businesses and factories on them, which is obviously what we have done over the years, so to some degree it’s a problem of our own making,” said Roy Mosley, the head of conservation and land management at Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust.

The risk faced by floodplain communities is exacerbated by the management of land upstream of the city. Intensive animal grazing leads to short grass and compacted soil, which is less able to absorb and hold water. There are no longer enough trees and plants to absorb rain and stop it from running straight into the river, Mosley said.