Rail Sector Services

Adverse weather significantly impacts rail performance, causing service cancellations and safety incidents. Vulnerable assets and infrastructure face hazards like heat-induced buckling and autumn leaves on the line.

Our specialist forecasts, datasets, and consultancy help rail operators run services safely and on time, regardless of the weather. We provide bespoke, innovative weather solutions tailored to today's railway needs.

Why work with the Met Office?

Accessing accurate weather and climate information enhances organisational performance and safety.

Our experienced rail consultants:

• Collaborate with customers to integrate weather and climate knowledge, addressing specific weather hazard vulnerabilities.
• Develop bespoke data and forecast services using the latest scientific advancements.
• Produce high-resolution leaf-fall, low adhesion, and wind throw forecasts for various lead times.
• Provide innovative consultancy solutions.

Explore our services to the rail sector:

Research and consultancy

By closely collaborating with our customers, we develop and apply advanced scientific solutions to the rail industry's challenges, including:

• Using new science to enhance operational services and network efficiency.
• Analysing weather information and customer data to understand performance and high-impact incidents.
• Addressing climate change impacts and adaptation.
• Partnering with technology providers to integrate decision support tools in driver cabs and operational centres.

Extreme Heat Task Force Weather and Climate Change Report 2023

Data services

Our tailored weather and climate data and forecast services cover all aspects of rail operations, from maintenance and contingency planning to daily decision-making:

• Forecast and historical data
• Site or area-specific information
• Bespoke time periods
• Site-specific weather forecasts, including rail temperature and rail state information

Leaf-fall and low adhesion risk predictions

Accurate, spatially targeted leaf-fall and low adhesion predictions help mitigate safety breaches and performance issues. Using advanced weather models and extensive environmental data, the Met Office has developed reliable models to predict leaf-fall, low moisture levels, and fallen trees on the network.

Our color-coded leaf-fall and low adhesion forecasts inform key decision-makers at various spatial and temporal scales:

• Bespoke spatial representation (e.g., site-specific hotspots, station-to-station sections, lines of routes, or regions).
• Temporal resolutions from hourly to daily, depending on lead time.
• Targeted low adhesion guidance summaries.
• For medium-term planning, forecasts are available 10 days in advance, and our Autumn Prospect reports provide weather and leaf-fall insights for the coming autumn.

Earthwork failure predictions

The Met Office and Network Rail are working on an innovative collaboration to assess how to better predict and manage the risks of earthworks failures. The work uses expertise from across disciplines from geotechnical engineering experts to environmental science, weather and climate specialists.

• Combining Network Rail geotechnical knowledge, providing experience on earthwork behaviour, with Met Office data and intelligence to provide the hydro-meteorological context, has proved successful.
• We have validated the approach using ensemble forecasts, assessing their skill in prediction up to five days in advance. Our research has also tested the feasibility of a regional forecast tool for soil earthwork failures for up to 15 days in advance.