Train Services: Extreme Weather

Steve Darling Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Westminster Hall

[Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) on landing this really important debate.

Climate change is the real enemy we are facing, whether in the form of extreme heat or storms. Twelve years ago, the storm at Dawlish ripped away the sea wall, leaving it looking almost like a railway line somewhere in South America after a big storm. It resulted in eight weeks of closure down to the south-west of England—eight weeks that massively impacted us. One estimate suggested that the economic impact was around £1.2 billion. I remember getting on trains at Paddington that were usually busy but felt more like the Mary Celeste. It was incredible.

There were five parts to the puzzle of sorting the rail line out, as part of the south-west resilience programme. The fifth and final part remains outstanding, which is extremely worrying. Most of us enjoyed the really good summer we just had—some of us endured it—but the other side of the coin is much wetter winters, which could massively impact the cliffs at Dawlish. The cliffs are the enemy now, rather than the sea, as they could collapse. Work on that is unfunded, and we desperately need the funding. I hope the Minister will reflect on that in his comments.

Further up the line from Dawlish is Powderham, often a place for events. The challenge there concerns the Environment Agency’s choice of a managed retreat from Dawlish Warren, such that the warren, which currently acts as a protector to the estuary, could break and open up the railway line at Powderham to attack by storms and the sea. We need investment to protect that rail line, after we have achieved the success at Dawlish that we are hoping for from the Minister.

I want to reflect on where we are with the heat. In Devon and Cornwall, we have really poor-quality local rolling stock, which is almost life-expired. The perverse thing is that although they are new to us, the trains are third or fourth hand-me-downs from elsewhere in the country. The class 175s were handed down from south Wales, and they have not quite been got running, so even the hand-me-downs do not work. In the north of England, there has been investment in quality rail solutions for the trans-Pennine railways—partly electrification and partly battery. We should have a similarly futuristic rail service for Devon and Cornwall, which would not only be a lot more sustainable in our changing world, but would ensure that we tackle climate change by taking the carbon out of travel on our railway.

A specific challenge facing trains in the south-west is the lack of moisture in the soil, which means that they have to travel particularly slowly. We need to be alive to that issue, as well as to buckling rails. I speak to hoteliers such as the owner of the Berburry hotel, which is quite close to Torquay rail station. She gets international visitors, whose experience on the continent, sadly, is often of a much better-quality rail service. After decades of under-investment, we really need that investment.

I look forward to the Minister’s reflections on the fifth and final piece of the Dawlish puzzle, on how we protect Powderham in the light of the threat I highlighted, and on investment in quality rolling stock for Devon and Cornwall, so that we can face the future with confidence.

--- Later in debate ---

[Simon Lightwood]

My hon. Friend raises a really interesting question. I do not know the answer, but I will make sure I speak to the Rail Minister and see what answers we can get for my hon. Friend.

This summer brought the challenges we are discussing into sharp focus. The UK experienced five widespread heatwaves between May and August. In June, the Met Office issued a rare red extreme heat warning. During the most severe conditions, on 24 and 25 June, passengers were advised to make only essential journeys in affected areas, including the west midlands. Services continued to run, but safety required reduced speeds and amended timetables. That meant longer journeys and a greater risk of delays, cancellations and late changes.

My hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase is right to highlight the experience in his constituency. This summer, heat reduced Chase line services, while intense rainfall flooded the railway between Hednesford and Rugeley and forced trains to terminate at Hednesford. Further storms disrupted services in October. These events reinforce the need for better preparations, including drainage, targeted investment in resilience and strong local partnership working. Network Rail has produced a weather resilience and climate change adaptation plan for each of our regions, and those plans indicate where investment may be needed during hot weather and how issues can be addressed.

The first duty of the railway is, of course, to keep passengers and staff safe. Speed restrictions, targeted inspections and temporary closures can be really frustrating, but they are needed to ensure a safe railway. The task is to make those decisions earlier and more precisely, communicate them clearly and restore the service as quickly as conditions allow.

The industry has drawn practical lessons from summer 2026, including preparing earlier, focusing on the greatest risks, planning for prolonged heat, and making decisions sooner. Operationally, that means acting as one railway, using restrictions in a targeted way, building recovery into the response and adapting quickly as evidence changes. The Railways Bill will establish Great British Railways, which will integrate operations and infrastructure in regional routes to ensure that they act as one railway. In the meantime, the rail industry has established a climate change programme co-chaired by Network Rail and Department for Transport Operator Limited to provide strategic direction, align the industry and monitor delivery.

Preparation is not confined to summer, nor are climate risks confined to heat and the consequential moisture and soil deficit in many areas. The developing El Niño is expected to increase the chances of wetter, stormy conditions across the UK this autumn and in early winter, with stronger winds and increased risks of heavy rainfall and flooding. Colder spells are also possible. The railway is therefore preparing for a range of conditions using drones, specialist treatment trains and autumn forecasts, while managing vulnerable trees, planning contingency timetables, monitoring conditions in real time and deploying winter equipment to keep passengers moving safely.

As well as operational preparedness, we need to look to the future. Summers such as the one we experienced this year will become increasingly common. As was said, extreme weather has become the weather. The changing climate means that resilience cannot simply be something that we consider after extreme weather strikes. It needs to be built into the everyday decisions we make about how the transport system is maintained, operated and funded. That is why the Department for Transport launched its climate adaptation strategy for transport in December 2025, setting out our vision for a transport system that is safe, reliable and resilient to a changing climate.

Importantly, the strategy is about turning that ambition into practical change, supporting the transport system to prepare for the impacts of climate change by setting the strategic direction, strengthening the evidence base and embedding adaptation into planning and decision making. That approach is already being put into practice on the railway. Network Rail is pioneering work on adaptation planning through its adaptation pathways so that investment can be prioritised and staged as risks change.

Publicly owned train operators have for the first time also developed weather resilience and climate adaptation plans looking at climate risks across the railway, not only in respect of infrastructure, but to staff and customer welfare too. For example, working air con is equally important. Just yesterday, the Department for Transport published the first transport resilience strategy to provide strategic direction to improve the resilience of the transport sector and ensure that resilience principles are embedded in decision making and planning. The hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for East Londonderry (Mr Campbell) will be pleased to know that as part of that work, we are setting up a four nations transport resilience group.

Looking ahead, Great British Railways will address resilience across track and train as one system, while the long-term rail strategy will highlight climate resilience and adaptation as a clear priority, building on the £2.9 billion being invested between 2024 and 2029. That has been invested in activity but also technology to improve resilience to extreme weather and climate change.

[Steve Darling]

A few months ago, Network Rail met me and other south-west MPs who are here today and told us that it is occasionally acceptable to close the Dawlish rail line. Does the Minister believe that it is acceptable?

[Simon Lightwood]

I will come on to talk specifically about the issues that the hon. Gentleman raised. All endeavours are being made and a great deal of funding has gone in to make that track as resilient as possible. I do not think that anybody wants to suspend services through that area, but unfortunately there will be instances where that may have to be done. The investment that has put in has made it more resilient; we saw that during the latest storms, when the line was reopened the day after its closure.

My hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham) and the hon. Member for Torbay talked about south-west rail resilience. I think that more than £165 million has been invested through the south-west rail resilience programme, including a new seawall, a rockfall shelter at Parson’s tunnel to Teignmouth and major cliff stabilisation work. As I just said, the value of that investment was demonstrated during the storms at the start of this year. This year also saw Cornwall’s worst ever rainfall totals, but the new seawall performed as designed, helping to protect the infrastructure from major damage and allowing the line to reopen the very next day.

Phase 5 of the resilience programme was not funded as part of the 2025 spending review. We are continuing to fund investigative work on that section of the route. Network Rail is currently undertaking a drainage trial to remove water from the cliffs, as well as further ground investigation. That will give National Rail the more detailed data that it needs for longer term solutions. All the monitoring equipment that is installed in those areas of the cliff between Parson’s tunnel and Teignmouth will help to provide a quick response when triggered. My hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Joe Morris) also mentioned Northern; it is procuring, I think, 450 new trains due in 2031. I appreciate that feels like a long time away but it is also looking at shorter term options to improve capacity.

I assure my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase and hon. Members throughout the House that this Government recognise both the immediate disruption experienced by passengers and the longer term challenge facing our railway. In a single season, Cannock Chase has seen the effect of heat, intense rainfall and storms. We will continue to work with Network Rail, train operators and local partners to learn from those events, improve drainage and operational preparedness, target investment where risk is greatest, and give passengers clearer information. Extreme weather cannot be prevented but its consequences can be better anticipated, managed and reduced. That is how we will secure a safer, more reliable and more resilient railway for Cannock Chase and for communities across the country.