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Dear reader,
Rail is frequently positioned as a central pillar of sustainable transport — lower emissions per passenger-kilometre, lower land consumption per unit of infrastructure capacity, and a natural partner to renewable energy grids. That positioning is accurate. But it obscures a parallel challenge that is becoming harder to ignore: rail infrastructure is itself significantly exposed to the effects of climate change, and the gap between current design standards and future climate conditions is widening.
The summer of 2026 has provided a series of concrete illustrations. The heatwave of June 2026, with new temperature records across Central Europe, produced a record number of track deformations — 44 cases of rail buckling on the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) network alone as of early July 2026. In Germany, temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius caused the bitumen joint compound between tram rails and asphalt to melt and overflow in Leipzig and Nuremberg, forcing both LVB and VAG to suspend tram operations entirely.
In Leipzig, the network-wide shutdown began on 27 June 2026; dozens of workers, including volunteers, spent days manually removing hardened compound from switches and track sections before services could gradually resume. An independent expert has been commissioned by LVB to investigate the underlying causes, with initial findings expected by the end of August 2026. These are not isolated incidents. Comparable disruptions were reported in Bremen and Würzburg during the same period.
This is not an isolated episode. Flooding, slope failures, wildfires near embankments, and frozen switches in winter are all becoming more frequent and more severe. Infrastructure designed against historical climate data is being tested by conditions that fall outside its original parameters.
Adaptation, in this context, means two things. The first is reactive: understanding where existing infrastructure is most exposed, quantifying damage potentials, and prioritising intervention. The second is structural: revising design standards, updating regulatory frameworks, and building monitoring systems that allow risks to be detected and managed before they cause disruption. Both dimensions are reflected in current research.
This issue looks at projects addressing the climate resilience of rail infrastructure - from station environments to track-level microclimate monitoring - and at the methodological challenges involved in turning climate data into actionable adaptation measures.
Best regards, Your RMR-Team |
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Railway stations are among the most climate-exposed elements of rail infrastructure. They are open, heavily used, and designed for conditions that are becoming less representative of what passengers and staff now experience — prolonged heat, heavy rainfall, and the urban heat island effect compounding both.
A project commissioned by DZSF and started in April 2026 sets out to systematically address this gap. Its objective is to examine the current and future climate-related impacts on station buildings, platforms, and the people using and working in them, and to develop, evaluate, and document adaptation measures accordingly. Both investment and operating costs of proposed measures will be assessed. Results will be made publicly available in a practical guidance document, intended to support infrastructure managers and planners in prioritising and implementing adaptation measures at station level.
Contractor: AtmoVera Max Ulrich e.K. Duration: 24 months from April 2026. |
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Managing climate risk in rail infrastructure requires data that does not yet exist at the necessary scale and resolution. Frozen switches, failed air conditioning in rolling stock, and embankment fires are established consequences of temperature extremes — but the precise microclimate conditions within and around track areas remain poorly understood.
A project commissioned by DZSF addresses this directly. Starting in November 2023, the project is building a scientifically grounded, long-term microclimate monitoring network for rail infrastructure across Germany. Following an initial literature and data review, representative monitoring sites have been identified and categorised. A universal concept for a fully automated, long-term measurement system is being developed and deployed at these locations. The installed network will operate for at least one full year before being handed over to DZSF for continuation for a minimum of five further years.
The data will serve both ecological and economic purposes: improving understanding of the microclimate conditions affecting lineside flora and fauna, feeding into the planning of new structures, extending the service life of existing infrastructure, and enabling the quantification of temperature peaks that can update current risk models and inform adaptation priorities.
Contractor: DB Systemtechnik GmbH (lead), with Fraunhofer IKTS and IAMK GmbH as subcontractors. Duration: 30 months from November 2023. | |
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Research Results Published | |
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How significant is the impact of extreme weather on Europe's rail networks — and what should be done about it? The European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) has published the first comprehensive attempt to answer both questions systematically.
Published in March 2026 at the request of the European Commission, the report draws on nearly a decade of data covering weather-related disruptions across EU rail networks. After data cleaning, 13,469 extreme weather events were identified for the period 2005–2024, with a clear upward trend over the last decade and a peak in 2018. Floods and heavy precipitation, windstorms, and landslides are identified as the most disruptive hazards for Europe's railways.
70% of EU infrastructure managers perceive increasing impacts of extreme weather on their networks, representing 79% of the EU network by track kilometre. The cumulative effect is substantial: the total weather-related delays recorded between 2015 and 2024 correspond to an annual reduction equivalent to between one and three full years of railway service at EU level.
Beyond the data, the report puts forward six concrete proposals to strengthen the EU legal framework for rail resilience to climate change — developed in response to direct requests from infrastructure managers, national authorities, and European bodies involved in drafting the report.
The report represents the most complete picture to date of how climate hazards affect rail infrastructure across Europe, and is directly relevant for infrastructure managers, policymakers, and suppliers working on adaptation strategies.
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Planned Research Projects |
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Assessing the economic impact of climate-related disruption to transport infrastructure requires more than incident records — it requires a methodology that allows damage to be quantified systematically and comparably across networks and event types.
A forthcoming DZSF project will develop exactly this: indicators and damage functions covering both physical infrastructure damage and operational impacts of climate-related events, applied in case studies across rail and road. The methodology will be documented in a practical user guide, enabling climate-related damage potentials to be assessed in a structured and quantitative way. Results are intended to support Germany's national climate adaptation strategy and, following evaluation by the relevant transport sectors, to be progressively prepared for practical application — for example in the planning and prioritisation of adaptation measures, and in monitoring and reporting systems.
Project start: Q4 2026. Duration: 30 months.
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