Adapting to Climate Change: Building a Resilient Railway Future
Climate change presents unprecedented challenges and opportunities for the global railway sector. As a sustainable mode of transport, rail is vital for a greener future, yet its extensive infrastructure is increasingly exposed to extreme weather events. The UIC is at the forefront of driving innovation and collaboration to ensure railways worldwide are prepared, resilient, and adaptable to a changing climate.
Our efforts focus on understanding climate risks, developing robust adaptation strategies, and sharing best practices across our global network. This work is key to protecting railway operations, ensuring passenger and worker safety and maintaining the reliability and efficiency of this essential mode of transport.
RERA Project
Enhancing Railway Resilience
The UIC, through our RERA programme (Resilient Railways), has brought together a network of international experts to co-create two new climate hazard-specific reports. The reports and the frameworks described within are an output of the dedicated and collaborative knowledge sharing of that network. The reports seek to help railways worldwide to be prepared, resilient, and adaptable to a changing climate.
Our collective efforts focus on understanding climate risks, developing robust adaptation strategies, and sharing best practices across our international network. This collaborative approach ensures we safeguard railway operations, enhance safety, and maintain the efficiency of this vital mode of transport for the future.
The UIC is proud to share Resilient Railways (RERA) Rain and RERA Temp reports.
Officially launched on March 27, 2025, these comprehensive reports mark a significant milestone in global railway resilience research. They provide critical guidance and practical frameworks for railway infrastructure managers and operators to effectively address the growing challenges posed by increasingly frequent and extreme weather phenomena:
- RERA Rain: Addressing Extreme Precipitation and Flooding This report examines the vulnerabilities of railway infrastructure to heavy rainfall and associated flooding. It offers a structured, three-phase framework:
- Climate impact analysis;
- Vulnerability, risk and criticality assessment; and
- Adaptation planning.
Key recommendations include integrating enhanced weather forecasting, improving inspection protocols, and fostering strengthened collaboration to mitigate risks such as landslides, embankment failures, and track inundation. The RERA Rain report provides essential guidelines for both strategic planning and daily operational management.
- · RERA Temp: Managing Extreme Temperatures and Desert Conditions Focusing on the pervasive impacts of rising temperatures and desert environments (including sand contamination), this report identifies the most affected railway assets: tracks, rolling stock, signalling systems, bridges, and vegetation. It proposes a range of practical solutions and a systematic approach to data analysis, risk assessment, and the implementation of adaptive measures. This is crucial for managing critical issues like track buckling, sand encroachment, equipment overheating, and ensuring operational continuity in harsh thermal conditions. Solutions discussed include solar heat reflective coatings, athermal films, enhanced electronic cooling, and smart monitoring systems.
The RERA Rain and RERA Temp reports equip the global railway community with the knowledge, tools and strategies to help build more resilient, safe, and functional networks amidst a changing climate. These publications reinforce UIC’s commitment to fostering expertise and innovation, ensuring rail remains the backbone of sustainable mobility for the future.
Download the reports
eNews
- UIC launches Resilient Railways guidance for flooding and heatwaves
- RERA-Rain and RERA-Temp workshops held to prepare the sector for climate change
For further information, please visit:
Or contact us at RERA at uic.org
The work Continues in 2025 with the launch of the RERA taskforce. The Group builds in the momentum of past projects to continue to provide a platform for the railways to exchange on this critical topic. To get involved contact us RERA at UIC.org
Transport System Resilience Task Force
The Transport System Resilience Task Force including PIANC, PIARC, ACI, UITP and UIC to address transport resilience at a system level, considering interdependence between different modes. UIC hold the chair of the group in 2025.
Background and Need
Historically, international transport associations focused on resilience within individual transport modes. However, recent events like the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical situations, and increasingly frequent extreme climate change-related events (e.g., heatwaves, floods, wildfires) have exposed significant weaknesses and interdependencies within transport systems, leading to severe disruptions in supply chains.
Objectives
The primary goal of the Task Force is to enhance understanding and strengthen transport system resilience through collaborative discussion and knowledge exchange. This involves:
- Sharing information: Exchanging guidance, case studies, and other relevant data, possibly through common platforms.
- Facilitating knowledge-sharing events: Organizing or promoting conferences, workshops, and webinars.
- Collaborating on joint initiatives: Engaging in shared research, common work streams, or specific activities.
Scope
The Task Force concentrates on the physical and operational resilience of infrastructure supporting road, public transport, rail, water, and air transportation systems. This will be approached cross-modally and from an international perspective, with the aim that outcomes are also applicable nationally and locally.
ARISCC project
In 2009 the UIC launched a project named ARISCC, (Adaptation of Railway Infrastructure to Climate Change) which reported in late 2010. The project found good practice examples and case studies of adaptation plans and made recommendations on how to develop these strategies. The case studies and recommendations are available at:
Visit ARISCC website:
http://www.ariscc.org
Building a resilient railway: UIC RailAdapt project
UIC members have experienced the impacts of extreme weather events in recent years. As well as the costs of damage (every year natural disasters cost the global economy around $1.2 Tn) railway organisations are aware of permanent loss of traffic
and damage to reputation. CEOs will therefore be interested in the UIC initiative ‘RailAdapt’ which is designed to provide UIC members with a strategic framework to build long-term resilience. RailAdapt will bring rail and other experts together to share good practice and develop guidance on optimising cost effective resilience, prioritising resilience
activity, sourcing funding for the investment and making connections with funders (e.g. development banks). Full document to be downloaded below.
Previous work
In 2006 UIC dedicated a task force to examine the consequences on rail infrastructure. In 2007 the task force launched a feasibility study aiming to explore if and how the impact of extreme weather events are an issue for UIC members and to give directions for the next steps.
The feasibility study was finalised in 2008 and demonstrated that the impact of global warming is an important issue for UIC members – and the future work will be targeting three phases:
- Readiness for extreme weather events,
- Robustness when extreme weather events occur
- Recovery ability after extreme weather has occurred
UIC is a member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changes (UNFCCC)’s Global Adaptation Programme entitled the Nairobi work programme.
UIC is also a member of the UNECE Expert Group on Adaptation, and the EC Adaptation Steering Group.
UIC recently made a presentation to an OECD Conference on Climate Change Adaptation - see presentation below.
Please see below a series of presentations from our workshop held in 2010 on this topic.
Workshop on Adaptation of Railway Infrastructure to Climate Change (ARISCC) with contribution from “Railways and Winter”
When: 19th and 20th October 2010
Where: UIC HQ Paris
The workshop on focused on the 3Rs – Readiness, Resilience & Recovery of climate adaption. During the two-day workshop, several presentations and participants from different European countries illustrated and discussed the status quo as well as key elements of an integrated natural hazard management with regard to ARISCC.