Tomorrow's Railway and Climate Change Adaptation Final Report

Climate change will impact asset life, requiring changes to railway standards and
asset policies
This finding addresses the T1009 objective to investigate the impacts of climate change
and future extreme weather on the GB railway.
In relation to this subject:
Final Report
Page Number
• It is recommended that a review of standards
relevant to the consideration of weather and
climate change-related impacts and risks should
be undertaken. It should focus on reviewing
standards relating to design and strategic
planning first, because of the need to ensure
that new designs and strategies are resilient.
After that, it should review those relating to
operations and management.
• It is recommend that any reviews of technical
standards for the design and management of
infrastructure assets should be done in
collaboration with other UK national
infrastructure operators. This will ensure a
national approach can be adopted and will help
‘UK plc’ to influence the development of
relevant British Standards and Eurocodes, for
example.
• It is recommended that the industry should
account for potential reductions in asset life due
to climate change when assessing whole life
maintenance and renewal plans/costs
5.4.2
3.9
5.14
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