How Will Climate Change Impact The Railway?

It's not often I get to praise Network Rail, but they've disclosed that they're now looking at parts of the network with an eye on climate change.

They want to assess the impact of more variable weather on the vulnerable areas of the network like older bridges, landslip-prone areas and low-lying rails.

Forward thinking? Network Rail?? It doesn't always happen, so kudos to them for having the balls to do this.

On the other hand, a cynic could wonder why their engineers haven't been keeping an eye on these places anyway?

Personally, I think you haven't lived until you've taken a train ride along the Dawlish sea wall during a storm, something that may happen more often. It looks quite sedate in the video below (the trains start 40 seconds in), but when you're on board it is pant-shittingly scary.