This year, a landslide caused by heavy rains forced the evacuation of four Ocean-view apartment buildings in San Clemente, Calif., and dropped debris on nearby railroad tracks.
The environmental risks to railroads are increasing, but the measures to reduce the danger will be costly.
This article is part of our special section on Climate Forward that will include policy and climate leaders from around the world. The LOSSAN rail corridor in Southern California, which is the second busiest in the United States, is under siege by the federal government. The oceanside tracks, which run from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, face erosion from higher water levels in the Pacific and record rainfall. In addition, increased precipitation has destabilized the inland side, causing landslides, such as two in San Clemente recently, that have led to rail closures. While the entire line is not impaired, there are significant hot spots where 'the bluffs beneath the tracks are crumbling and the waves are crashing over the tracks because of sea-level rise, said Catherine Blakespear, a California state senator who conducts hearings on the rail lines and whose district is among those traversed by the tracks. The corridor is part of Stracnet, the network's acronym for the Strategic Rail Corridor Network, affecting riders who take the train, freight that is transported on this section and even our military readiness, she said. If that wasn't enough, a nuclear power plant is near the tracks.
California's situation is not unique. Climate change is challenging for railroads and their infrastructure - whether for passengers or freight - worldwide. In Europe, for example, heavy rains in Slovenia this summer resulted in the suspension of some train lines. In Sweden, a train derailed recently after a surge in floods washed out tracks. The Amtrak-run route between Montreal and upstate New York was closed for several months after service resumed in the wake of the pandemic.
How governments and businesses respond to the impacts of climate change is one of the topics to be discussed at the New York Times Climate Forward event on Thursday. Although unusual temperatures and high winds can cause their own problems, unusually large amounts of rain are considered the most dangerous.
There's a multiplier effect on climate change, said Kai Kornhuber, an adjunct assistant professor of climate at Columbia University. A rise in different types of extreme weather events, such as heavy precipitation and unusually high temperatures, has led to the rise of various types of extreme weather events, he said. The combination of the two is creating 'complex climate risks', he said. The second occurrence, he said, often hits people and infrastructure ecosystems even harder than the first. In 2003, a 2003 report laid out the many risks railroads face, including temperature swings. Although the railroad tracks are engineered to withstand the environment's temperatures, Cummings said extreme heat could result in buckling, or kinking, which could occur when the tracks in between two fixed points expanded in the heat.
But it's not just infrastructure - engineers, conductors and maintenance workers are also exposed to the effects of climate change. Although slowing trains can help deal with weather extremes, slowdowns translate into longer workdays for employees, Kaminkow said. Then, rail operators are developing ways to enhance track resilience, which can prevent derailments and keep passenger and freight traffic moving. Trains often abound on river tracks because the gradient of the terrain is better suited for the rails. However, that placement puts the tracks at risk when heavy rains cause a river to overflow its banks.