disaster management Archives

Boosting rail’s resilience to extreme weather

Naoyuki Ota, director of the Disaster Prevention Technology Division of Japan’s Railway Technical Research Institute, explains how systems are being designed to predict extreme weather events to avoid disruption to train services and improve safety.

Learning the lessons of Rastatt

Developed following the Rastatt incident in 2017, the ICM Handbook is designed to improve responses to disruptions along the Rail Freight Corridor network. Christiane Warnecke and Alessandro Fattorini from the Rhine-Alpine Rail Freight Corridor talk with David Burroughs about how guidelines from the handbook and other lessons learned from the Rastatt incident were put into practice following an accident at Auggen in April.

Dealing with Disaster

As long as railways have existed, the threat of disaster has never been far away. But as trains have become faster and more sophisticated, the techniques, methods and systems put in place to prevent and mitigate potential disasters have also become more complex. David Burroughs looks at how railways around the world are building resilience and recovery measures into their networks.

Taming the Pacific Ring of Fire

With new high-speed railways being built in areas susceptible to natural disasters, it is imperative that these railways' emergency management strategies minimise the impact of such situations on passenger safety. With Taiwan experiencing one of earth's most volatile environments, Taiwan High Speed Railway Company (THSRC) is striving to do exactly this, as Kevin Smith discovered during a trip to Taipei.