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Weather exposes fragility of rail structures

21 Feb 13 Recent weather has delivered ‘a wake-up call’ to Britain’s rail industry, according to Network Rail chief executive David Higgins.

(and below) The impact of flooding in Hartlepool
(and below) The impact of flooding in Hartlepool

Recent incidences of flooding and landslips have proved the fragility of the rail infrastructure network and the urgent need for more investment in structures, he said.

Earlier this month, for example, there was a landslip at Hatfield Colliery near Stainforth, lifting rail tracks and bringing trains to a halt. Flooding has also taken its toll in recent months.

Commenting on the Office of Rail Regulation’s quarterly performance monitor, which highlighted the impact of extreme weather on train performance, Mr Higgins said: "The damage that extreme weather can do to a Victorian rail network which was neither designed nor built for such challenges is clear. Whole lines were closed by flooding and tracks came close to being washed away by rivers which burst their banks. On the worst affected parts of the network, torrential rain caused up to sixty landslides in a single day.

“This has been a wake-up call for the whole industry, which we ignore at our peril. As we set out when we launched our strategic business plan in January, we are playing catch up on decades of under-investment. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the embankments, cuttings, bridges, tunnels and other structures which have struggled to cope with extreme weather, alongside the burden of carrying more passengers than they were designed for. Our submission to our regulator for the next five-year funding settlement reflects our plan to tackle this.

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“Despite considerable challenges, the industry still managed to move more than three million people a day by train during this period, with almost nine-out-of-ten trains arriving on time. This is testament to the hard work of all our staff and those working for our partners. However, this does not undermine the need for us to do even more, including better investment in our assets, to be able to improve resilience and recovery during extreme weather in the future."

Pictured below is the impact of the Hatfield Colliery landslip near Stainforth in South Yorkshire. This took place on 12 February and is expected to take eight weeks to repair.

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