Developing railway solutions that can withstand the effects of climate change
Extreme weather events are no longer anomalies – they are the new norm. Climate change disrupts weather patterns, escalating sea levels and increasing the occurrence of natural disasters. In France alone, the number of significant rail accidents linked to climatic hazards tripled over the period 2015-2022. Thus, the resilience of the world’s rail networks, which serve as the backbone of passenger and goods transportation, has become a critical concern for urban planners, authorities, investors and manufacturers alike.
Forecasting the probability and intensity of climate hazards remains a fiendishly complex task. While railway systems can be game changers in reducing transport impact on climate change, they are also the victim of its adverse effects. Consequently, railway systems must be directly engineered to endure increasingly harsh conditions – be it scorching heatwave, heavy snowfalls, floods, or sandstorms. Maintenance of equipment, from trains to components, electricals and infrastructure, must be devised in such a way as to prevent potential accidents and mitigate system’s weaknesses. With their long lifespan, railway systems require long-term solutions. We are at a pivotal moment, where every decision made today could significantly influence the challenges we will encounter in the future, testing in unexpected ways the resilience of our systems.
To address these challenges and build climate resilience, railway companies focus on innovating in all aspects of the business: trains, infrastructure, signalling, services and in collaboration with different stakeholders.
Passenger safety and comfort at the heart of train design
Around the world, trains solutions are designed in compliance with international standards (e.g. EN50125-1 or EN14750) that outline the environmental conditions under which trains (and on-board equipment) are expected to operate. Alstom’s design focus ensures trains operate reliably under diverse environmental conditions, from tropical heat to severe winters leveraging its research from reviewing climatic trends over the past twelve years.
Our trains are designed to function efficiently within a temperature range of -25°C to +45°C and can be tropicalised or winterised to withstand temperatures as low as -40°C. Utilisation of advanced materials and engineering practices ensures operational reliability, while efficient HVAC systems maintain passenger comfort and safety. For example, cooling systems on Alstom’s metro in Riyadh are designed to operate even when external temperatures soar to +58°C and power supply is cut off.
