Sixty sustainable solar weather watchers protect the railways

Between London Euston and Carlisle, Network Rail has installed a total of 60 solar-powered weather watchers.

The stations, an investment of £1.3m, monitor the railway along the West Coast main line and across parts of the North West – ensuring engineers can react quickly ahead of and during extreme weather events.

The stations give staff access to real-time data so response teams can be sent to the right place at the right time to fix the railway rapidly. They measure:

• Wind speed & direction
• Wind gust & direction
• Air temperature
• Relative humidity
• Dew point
• Rain fall totals (precipitation rate & accumulation)

In the long run, data gathered will help Network Rail weather experts to predict which parts of the network are more vulnerable to bad weather before it even hits.

Network Rail service delivery manager, Talisa Fletcher, said the stations would help respond to a rise in extreme weather:“Our solar powered weather stations will help us to better understand weather patterns and during stormy weather we can send our response teams to where they’re most needed which will help us to reduce disruption and keep passengers safe.”

Since 2015, in Network Rail’s North West and Central region, extreme weather has caused  more than 400 days’ worth of train delays.

As COP26 opened in Glasgow, thousands of West Coast main line passengers and rail engineers felt the weather’s wrath as a month’s rainfall hit the railway in just a few hours.

This led to speed restrictions and emergency railway closures causing major disruption for passengers.

But this new technology is designed to better prepare Network Rail to stay one step ahead of the changing climate, reducing delays so it can get people and goods to where they need to be.

For more on how Network Rail manages extreme weather, click here.

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