A new industry-endorsed weather learning programme has been launched by Network Rail and the Chartered Institution of Railway Operators (CIRO).
The programme is aimed at operational staff to help address the growing challenges of extreme weather.
Network Rail has been partnering up to create different preventative measures to protect the railway in the event of extreme weather.
They have worked with weather experts, including the Met Office, to improve knowledge among staff and help them to become more confident in decision-making during adverse conditions.
The programme is open to Network Rail staff and the wider industry and covers climate change, hazards, and forecasting through e-learning and real-life workshops.
This is another step, alongside many others, which highlights Network Rail’s commitment to creating resilience across the railway.
“Rail staff face increasing challenges from extreme weather that can impact the network and disrupt passenger journeys. This programme combines the use of weather forecast information with staff’s existing railway expertise, empowering them to make swift, informed decisions when conditions demand it.
“It demonstrates to the rail industry and passengers our commitment to embedding weather resilience thinking at the heart of everything we do. We can’t control the weather but with the right knowledge, tools and training we can control how we respond to it.”
Lisa Angus, Network Rail’s industry weather response director
Responses
“Rail staff face increasing challenges from extreme weather that can impact the network and disrupt passenger journeys.”
I’m not convinced that disruption on the railways is due to “extreme weather”. Weather is no more “extreme” than it ever has been, but saying so is a convenient excuse for Network Rail to use. Really, most disruption is due to poorer maintenance of track and linesides than used to be the case under the big four railway companies and even British Rail. Trees were kept way back from linesides so that, even if they fell in a gale, they did not affect the track. Tracks were inspected daily by “linesmen” who “owned” a section of track and inspected it daily by walking along it. That way track problems and foreign objects were identified quickly and rectified before they caused any trouble. Train brakes rubbed against the wheel treads, thus keeping them clean of leaf etc build up, unlike modern trains with disc brakes.
It’s good that better weather information will enable rail staff to make “swift informed decisions”, just as long as the default decision isn’t always to cease all rail service “as a precaution” which appears to be all too common now.