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Time and tide
Few pictures tell a story more
vividly than the wall-mounted
photo positioned behind
Mark Langman, Network
Rail’s route managing
director for Wales. With a
sweep of the arm, he points to a small train
shrouded in spray, running the gauntlet
of waves storming a sea wall at Ferryside,
Carmarthenshire. ‘Looks like an explosion,’
Langman says. It is, he adds, an image less
familiar than that of the much-pounded
line at Teignmouth, yet it’s one point among
several in Wales that could pose problems as
the UK’s weather lurches between extremes.
www.railimages.co.uk
Climate change could pose big problems for Network
Rail, as water erodes trackbeds, embankments,
bridges and tunnels. In Wales, coastal erosion is high
on the agenda of its new route managing director,
Mark Langman, as Andrew Mourant discovers
Network Rail already has John Dora
working full-time from Euston headquarters
to understand climate change and prepare
for its consequences. What challenges all
this may hold for the tracts of coastal line
in Wales is an unfolding story. But there’s
no crisis, at least not according to Langman.
And he knows the patch well – he spent five
years as general manager for Wales and the
Marches before taking over as the country’s
first route director last November.
‘I think we’re in a fairly good state at
the moment,’ he says. ‘We’ve done work at
Ferryside that’s put us in good stead, unless
something catastrophic happens – for
instance, if we get one of those one-in-100-
years storms that seem to happen every two
years.’
Yet isn’t that the nub of his problem –
extreme weather happening more often
‘Absolutely, and we’ve got to recognise that
some of the railway was built by Victorians
in different conditions to those that we have
today. We have to start thinking ahead.’
Out of its budget, Network Rail must
maintain the railway wherever it is and
whatever the circumstances. In Wales,
plenty of track lies by the sea – along the
Cambrian Coast, parts of the north Wales
coastline and sections in west Wales.
Looking after all its assets in geographically
difficult locations is an expensive
responsibility, and one that could have an
unpredictable impact on finances. Where
problems arise, Langman’s instinct, that of a
lifelong rail man, is to fix things at once and
not worry where the money’s coming from.
‘We’ll do whatever is necessary to make sure
the railway stays open if it’s our asset.’
Beyond that, says Langman, the broader
Sea wall in Barmouth
PAGE 24 MARCH 2012