As we continue to be battered with rain and windy storms across the UK, the impact on our transport networks has been relentless. Rail links have broken down; lines and tracks are flooded; embankments have been washed away, literally! But the headline news and images on the suspended rail line over the sea at Dawlish that brought about the question: Are our transport systems resilient enough to cope with bad weather, include the extreme weather we are currently experiencing?
A little bit of research by the BBC and reports by the industry’s regulator has highlighted the alarming vulnerabilities of our transport network; endless maintenance delays and a lack of progress on drainage work has probably resulted in such catastrophic incidents. The ORR (Office of Rail Regulation) reported that Network Rail, who are the body responsible for the UK’s railway tracks, was behind some of their plans – 16% of them to be precise – to improve and/or renew cuttings and embankments… and that was before the rainfall and storms of the past couple of months! The ORR also said that in 2013, despite 180 earthwork failures in the past two years, 40% of the network’s drainage had not been reviewed and assessed – with results like that, any other business would not survive!
Since the ORR’s reported findings, i.e. over the last few weeks, the rain has been extremely consistent and weakened further embankments, cuttings and step-sided slopes, resulting in over 30 landslides. The impact is not only felt by passengers; much freight is moved around the country and tracks failing due to collapse or flooding brings with it an economic implication.
Take the city of Oxford; the city’s council has estimated that a cost of more than £40m has resulted due to the flooding of two main roads in just one week. The flooding of the railway line to the south of the city severely affected passenger travel to London; and it also caused serious delays to the movement of freight between the West Midlands and the north of England to Southampton Docks. What is even more galling for the city is that when engineering work was being carried out on the railway line three years ago, the city’s council asked Network Rail to consider flood-proofing the line… hindsight is not helpful in this situation!
And while the rain continues to fall; whilst homes, businesses, roads and railway lines continue to flood, the Government, Environmental Agency, councils, committees, etc. continue to argue with each other about the best way to defend our beloved country against these types of floods causing such huge disruption again… Will something be not only agreed upon, but actually be put into practice (with the necessary investment!) in time? Only time will tell, but there are many, many people who live in the vain hope that it might happen!