Rail Resilience to Climate Change

Europe's railways face increasing climate risks, but solutions exist. Following the request from the European Commission, the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) has published the first comprehensive assessment of extreme weather impacts on the rail system, together with six proposals to strengthen the EU legal framework regulating resilience to climate change.

ERA's report provides the most complete picture to date of how climate hazards affect rail infrastructure across Europe. The report shows that 70% of EU infrastructure managers perceive increasing impacts of extreme weather on their networks (representing 79% of the EU network in track km). After data cleaning, 13.469 extreme weather events were identified for the 2005-2024 period, with a peak in 2018 and a clear upward trend over the last decade.

Floods and heavy precipitation, windstorms and landslides are the most disruptive hazards for Europe's railways. When looking at the cumulative impact, the total weather-related delay of railway services recorded between 2015 and 2024 corresponds to an annual reduction to between one and three full years of railway service at EU level. Beyond operational disruption, recent events have led to severe localised damage. Publicly available national assessments report losses of around €65 million in Belgium (2021 floods), €1.4 billion in Germany (2021), €150 million in Italy (2023), approx. €450 million for the Athens-Thessaloniki line in Greece (2023), €212 million in emergency works in Spain (2024).

Building on one year of data collection, modelling, consultation workshops and inter institutional cooperation, and drawing on a consolidated dataset covering nearly a decade of weather-related disruption, ERA puts forward six proposals to strengthen the EU legal framework to improve rail resilience to climate change, that directly respond to requests from infrastructure managers, national authorities, European bodies and international organisations involved in drafting the report.

1. Common Safety Method for Assessing Safety Levels and Performance (CSM ASLP) introducing harmonised and mandatory reporting of weather related occurrences, through a common taxonomy and EU wide data environment.
2. Common Safety Method for Risk Evaluation and Assessment (CSM RA) integrating climate risk and vulnerability assessments into the EU's risk evaluation processes, aligned with ISO 14091 and EU climate proofing guidance.
3. Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) for Operation and Traffic Management (TSI OPE) aiming at strengthening coordination requirements for contingency and crisis management during extreme weather events, including cross border mechanisms.
4. Structural TSIs to analyse standards and verify the need for updates to integrate climate projections, notably for drainage, embankments, bridges, culverts, and environmental operating conditions.
5. Role of National Safety Authorities (NSAs) and ERA in certification, authorisation and supervision, reinforcing how climate risks are assessed in safety certification, safety authorisation and supervision processes at national and EU level.
6. Cooperation and knowledge sharing framework to establish a more structured EU level network to share best practices, data and methodologies - building on existing cooperation with EEA, EIB/JASPERS, UIC, ITF, Europe's Rail and Member States.

To implement these proposals, ERA will continue working with the European Commission, Member States, NSAs, infrastructure managers and European bodies to refine them and support their integration into EU policy.