Network Rail has released a report that outlines the risks climate change poses to the UK’s railway.
The Network Rail Third Adaption Report, published in partnership with the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), sets out the progress made from 2016 to 2021 on climate change and resilience.
Network Rail was the world’s first railway company to set independently-verified science-based carbon reduction targets. Since releasing its Environmental Sustainability Strategy in 2020 it’s taken important steps to ensure rail is one of the greenest forms of transport.
This latest report brings together work being carried out across Network Rail, including the Weather Task Force, to provide a wide ranging, integrated and comprehensive approach.
It also identifies further actions and provides a comprehensive quantitative risk assessment of assets and climate change risks.
“Climate change is having an undeniable impact on our infrastructure and the effects are forecast to be greater still in the coming years. More infrastructure failures would mean delays for passengers and our freight partners who move thousands of tonnes of goods across the country by rail.
“As the greenest form of large-scale transport, its critical we can continue delivering low carbon travel to customers. While there is no silver bullet to making our railway more resilient to the effect of climate change, the action plan outlined in this report demonstrates the progress we are committed to making.”
