Weather resilience
Plans to increase resilience are not keeping pace with the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.
NETWORK Rail’s plans to address climate change and increase resilience to extreme weather are not keeping pace with the frequency and severity of weather events, warns the Office of Rail and Road.
The regulator adds: “Network Rail must focus on improving identification of imminent failure by means of remote monitoring and on refining the measures it has to respond to forecasts of extreme conditions.”
In its Annual Report of Health and Safety Performance on Britain’s Railways, published on July 14, ORR says that although safety on Britain’s railways has improved over the last year, the number of earthwork failures and trains striking objects increased almost fourfold in 2019-20 compared with the year before.
Climate change-induced examples of infrastructure failure include hot dry summers followed by high rainfall, which can cause earthworks to collapse. Movement in clay embankments can also adversely affect the location of tracks.
Improvements include in level crossing safety, with just two deaths over the year (the same as in 2018-19). The regulator praised Network Rail’s long-term strategy for efficient improvement to level crossings.
The risk of Signals Passed at Danger has levelled out, but ORR says there has been an increase in incidents where driver alertness was an underlying factor. The regulator acknowledges the efforts of train operators to increase their focus on developing driver training, and says it is working with trade unions and operators to enable the installation of equipment to aid drivers.
Four rail workers died in 2019-20, which ORR says “further emphasises the highrisk environment in which many railway staff work and the importance of good working practices”.
Two key Improvement Notices were issued to NR to improve track
worker safety. These were focused on improved access, planning and improving the use of technology.
ORR says they are designed to eliminate planned work taking place on railway lines that are open to traffic where the only protection is a lookout.
NR must comply with the notices by July 22, and ORR stated: “It has so far responded positively by putting together a task force involving both its centre and the regions. Improvements to the deployment of new technology to protect workers has already started to be implemented.”
HM Chief Inspector of Railways Ian Prosser CBE said: “There’s no doubt our railway remains one of the safest in Europe. There have been improvements in health and safety to the operation of Britain’s railways and this bears testimony to the great efforts made across the industry over the past decade.
“However, in the last year there were significant increases in flooding, earthwork failures and trains striking trees on the line, which had a big impact on the number of delays on the network.
“It is so important that the sector employs best practice if we are to meet all the pressures on the network in the future, and to make sure the railway plays its full role on climate change and reducing carbon emissions.”