Network Rail will invest £2.8bn to protect railways from the impacts of climate change and extreme weather

Network Rail has announced plans to increase spending to protect railways from the effects of climate change and extreme weather, investing around £2.8 billion over the next five years.

The funding will be used to recruit nearly 400 additional drainage engineers and train hundreds of operators to better interpret weather forecasts.

The government-owned company also plans to railway Make embankments more resilient and install CCTV in locations with high flood risk.

Collapsed embankments have caused serious damage to a number of routes in recent months.

The Chiltern Main Line near Bicester in Oxfordshire and the West Coast Main Line between Coventry and Rugby were blocked by landslides in January and February respectively.

Extreme weather events becoming more common in UK Record rainfall hits England During the 18 months to March this year.

Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines described climate change as “the biggest challenge facing our railways”.

“Extreme weather over the past year… has taken a toll on our railways, and experts predict there will be more to come,” he said.

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Mr Haines continued: “We are meeting this challenge with significant investment to make our railways more resilient in events such as this and deliver better performance for rail users.”

“Our railways can never be completely weatherproof, but we can be better prepared to mitigate the worst impacts Mother Nature has to throw at us – now and in the future – to keep passengers and services safe and smooth .”

The spending is part of a £45.4 billion five-year investment plan for Network Rail, which also includes £19.3 billion to replace old assets with new ones and invest in projects such as digital signaling.

Some £12.6 billion will be earmarked for maintenance, £5.3 billion for support functions such as timesheets and IT, £4.4 billion for operations including signaling, and £1.8 billion will be set aside in a risk fund to deal with unforeseen events.

The majority of Network Rail’s revenue will come from UK and Scottish government grants (£29.8bn). It also collects track usage fees from train operators (£13.8bn) and is expected to earn £1.7bn from business income such as retail and property.

Railways Minister Huw Merriman said: “Our railways are at the heart of so many people’s daily lives, getting us where we need to go, whether that’s family and friends, work, education or holiday destinations.

“That’s why the network must be future-proof, with the ability to cope with extreme weather, while delivering the reliability and service levels passengers deserve.”