Network Rail launches hot weather resilience task force

IN the aftermath of the recordbreaking temperatures that caused havoc to passenger and freight services, Network Rail has announced a new taskforce to investigate and make recommendations on how the railway can develop its approach to resilience during hot weather. Led by independent experts in their field, one area of study will be gathering insights from other countries and making comparisons with international rail networks that are more used to dealing with extreme heat and fluctuations in temperature. Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, said: “The weather we’ve experienced this week has put a huge amount of pressure on our infrastructure, our staff, and our passengers, and with extreme weather events becoming more frequent as our climate continues to change, we’ve got to pull out all the stops to make our railway as resilient as possible. The experts will be Dame Julia Slingo FRS, former chief scientist at the Met Office and a worldrenowned expert in climatology; Sir Douglas Oakervee, who has 60 years’ experience of railway infrastructure; Simon Lane, former managing director and CEO of railways in Melbourne and New South Wales, who has experience of running railways in extreme temperatures; and Anthony Smith, chief executive of Transport Focus, who will examine how Network Rail communicates with passengers in the run-up to and during periods of extreme weather.