Falling weather delays undermine rail chief’s climate warning
By Paul Homewood
Weather-related train disruption has decreased over the past few years despite the Network Rail chief executive claiming climate change is “the biggest challenge our railway faces”, The Telegraph can reveal.
On Wednesday, the state-owned company said it would be spending £2.8 billion to help it cope better with extreme weather and climate change.
Its plans include training rail staff as “amateur meteorologists” and buying weather forecasting services that are accurate to within 500 metres.
Andrew Haines, the Network Rail chief executive, also said extreme weather had “taken its toll” on the network.
Yet data analysis by The Telegraph reveals that, for the last three years, the proportion of delays attributed to “weather, autumn and structure” has been decreasing.
“Weather, autumn and structure” covers delays caused by natural phenomena such as high wind or heavy rain, as well as autumn leaf fall. Leaf debris causes braking problems for trains, similar to the way in which ice causes cars to skid.
The increased climate spending pledge calls into question how wisely Network Rail is using its £45.4 billion budget for the next five years.
In 2020-21, train delays caused by “severe weather, autumn and structures” made up 10.3 per cent of all delay minutes counted by regulators, according to figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) analysed by The Telegraph.
By last year that share had declined to 7.7 per cent – just over a million minutes – out of 2023’s total train delays of 13.7 million minutes.
Andrew Montford, the science writer and author of The Hockey Stick Illusion, said: “The kinds of weather that affect rail services are not getting worse. Winters are milder, wind speeds are falling, and extreme rainfall has barely changed. What is getting worse is the tendency of official bodies to make foolish statements about climate change.”
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Just another corporate /bureaucrat type making excuses for poor service
“…chief executive…”
This merely means the apparatchik (man or token woman) routinely appointed by the Deep State, or Crony-Capitalism State, or Lunatic-Asylum State, or what you will; and given the excruciatingly boring job of pretending to talk like a normal businessman in the hope we do not twig that nothing is normal or ever will be again.
Climate change is the answer. Now what was the question?
+1
Much of the historical problem for weather delays is due to the fact the infrastructure mgr (NR and BR before it) hasn’t looked after drainage and lineside vegetation for decades as it was an easy way to save money. This leaves a legacy of blocked / failed drains and too many high tress that cause issues when rainfall or wind is high so to a degree its self inflicted. That said there has been a spate of earthwork failures this year from high rainfall in some areas but historically this has occurred before due to the fact our being first too build railways meant we didn’t fully understand geotechnical needs making those earthworks more vulnerable than there modern equivalents would be to high rainfall events. Mind you th railways never get the funding they need so why not leverage the climate change bandwagon!!
The easiest, least visible cost cutting which only becomes apparent decades later when the decision maker has long since retired is to cut maintenance. Usually a sign an organisation is facing financial issues is when routine maintenance is reduced and then cut completely
Precisely.
The biggest problem (apart from out of control Rail Unions, not Network Rail’s problem) is lack of basic inspection and maintenance. How many trees in close proximity to lines have been allowed to grow ridiculously big? As Nicholas Lewis points out, drainage isn’t even inspected properly, let alone maintained.
And, of course, Network Rail was the part of the Rail industry that was never privatised. So there is never a problem that won’t be laid at Network Rail’s door, because the cost will be paid for by taxpayers.
A great example was the Feb.12th 2013 dramatic landslide which wrecked a railway line next to Hatfield Colliery (Doncaster) Spoil Heap. “It looked like a new ride at Alton Towers” and it was only by luck that the train driver, warned of a “bumpy ride” was able to avoid a disaster. The problem may have been exacerbated by wet weather but certainly wasn’t Network Rail’s fault (although proper inspections might have identified the problem sooner). Guess who suffered the 6 month delay to services? Commuters. Guess who picked up the tab? Taxpayers.
Just pave the tracks and run busses on them. Only 3/17 of ground passenger mileage is by train and they get massive subsidy paid for by motorists.
Oh dear not another occurrence of this old chestnut about paving the tracks and running busses on them
I think you’ll find that bridges, cuttings and other infrastructure are too low and too narrow to be able to run unguided road traffic on old railway lines. Railway rolling stock is built to quite restricted dimensions and runs with very small clearances on top and at the sides. This is enabled by the railway tracks guiding the rolling stock very precisely
Wait until climate change really kicks in and they have all of those banana leaves and bananas on the rail to contend with!
Oh no! The wrong kind of climate.
“The wrong kind of climate.”
Was it on the lines again?
Maybe Global Greening, more leaves on lines, hence more delays, has been offset by Global Socialism, more strikes and work-to-rule, hence fewer train journeys, hence fewer delays.
Thanks for posting Paul.
Once again it is clear that Klymutt is an excuse, NOT a reason. This is about ideologically driven asininity.
Oh no, the “weather” is not conforming to our marxist ideologically driven money wasting stupidity but we will continue wasting money on it because we are into compromising the service as part of the marxist plot to collapse all our systems.
The person responsible for this should be sacked as being incompetent in office.
YES look at and conserve embankments. They ALL move and consequently deteriorate due to GRAVITY, not their klymutt fantasy. However in the majority of cases that will only be the cost of inspection.
Climate change has now become the universal excuse trotted out by all public bodies when they fail to maintain their infrastructure.
Who would have thought that letting trees grow over lines would cause a leaves on the line problem? On the lines I used to use they have actually dealt with this as over a couple of weekends the trees were removed to make cutting look like they did in the steam age. They also ran a track cleaning train.
That still leaves failure to maintain drainage and to allow trees to grow on embankments that I believe hold water and increase landslide problems.
Bring back the good old steam engines, nothing stopped them