Quick Links
Design & Tech Services
© Ibstock Plc. 2026
Climate Change and its Effect on the Rail Industry
09 November 2026
Climate change is noted as ‘one of the biggest challenges facing the railway today’[i] by Network Rail, with increasing rainfall and ever-rising temperatures taking their toll on railway infrastructure. As a result, cancellations and delayed services are becoming an increasing challenge, with Network Rail working to improve resilience and ensure passengers can complete their journeys safely and on time.
Here, Tim Fields, Ibstock - Anderton Concrete's Technical Manager, looks at how climate change is changing the way our rail infrastructure is built, and how Ibstock Anderton is able to help bridge the gap.
How is climate change affecting the rail network?
Climate change is posing an immediate and very real physical challenge to the stability and reliability of the UK’s rail network, with extreme weather events occurring more often and with greater severity. Research[ii] shows a 7% increase in rainfall per degree of global warming, with prolonged rainfall able to cause earthwork and embankment failures, triggering landslips and track subsidence.
Inadequate or overwhelmed drainage systems can also result in flooded tracks, washed-out ballast and damage to electrical assets, with flooding responsible for 6,718 train cancellations in 2024[iii]. On the flip side, heatwaves can cause tracks to buckle and deform, while drought can dry and shrink the ground beneath tracks. Extreme heat and dry vegetation can also increase the risk of lineside fires, causing further signalling infrastructure damage and disruption.
How can the wider industry help?
To achieve an uncompromised, resilient network, Tim believes the sector must embrace three core structural shifts.
- Incorporate climate risk into standard renewals: Resilience cannot be a retrofitted afterthought; climate risk must be built directly into the engineering standards of everyday line items, with routine asset replacement providing an opportunity to improve durability.
- Accelerate the use of offsite precast solutions: Moving construction away from the trackside can minimise weather-related delays, reduce on-site emissions and ensure greater product consistency through controlled manufacturing conditions.
- Prioritise the use of low-carbon materials: The sector must proactively seek alternative materials, such as replacing traditional, carbon-heavy cement with Ground Granulated Blast-Furnace Slag (GGBS), reducing embodied carbon without sacrificing structural lifespans.
What is currently being done?
Network Rail is investing approximately £2.8 billion into climate resilience and extreme weather adaptation under Control Period 7 (CP7), running until March 2029. This includes strengthening more than 480km of cuttings and embankments, rebuilding or redesigning more than 600,000m of drainage systems and upgrading tracks to withstand higher temperatures.
Alongside this, the industry is increasingly focused on proactive climate adaptation and carbon mitigation, with Network Rail setting science-based targets for its supply chain to reduce the embodied carbon of materials used in renewals.
Why Ibstock Anderton?
A first-class manufacturer of precast concrete products, Ibstock Anderton is one of the leading suppliers of UK-manufactured rail solutions, with an extensive range covering cable and utility troughs, retaining wall systems and other associated products.
This positions us well to support the industry’s changing requirements, with durable, precast solutions designed for today’s rail infrastructure.
From the Lineworx drainage system and Catchpits, which are able to reduce the strain placed on infrastructure by excessive rainfall, to our latest innovation, the Gen3 cable trough – a durable, non-combustible solution designed to protect critical trackside infrastructure – our products are helping rail contractors build resilience into the network.
As climate change continues to reshape the challenges facing the rail industry, the need for infrastructure that is durable, resilient and responsibly manufactured will only become more important.
👉 Find out more about our range of rail solutions.
👉 Find out more about our range of rail solutions.
Similar Stories...
WE ARE Ibstock
Sign up to our newsletter
© Ibstock Plc. 2026
