Weather risks assessment for Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency – climate change is affecting the safety of the railway network
In the future, the safety and reliability of rail transport will be increasingly affected by weather and its extreme phenomena. Sweco’s risk management experts helped the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and other actors in the railway system assess various weather risks in the current situation and as the climate changes.
The railway network prepares for various weather risks
Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency is responsible for Finnish roads and waterways as well as the entire extensive railway network. In spring 2024, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency commissioned Sweco’s risk management experts to assess the risks posed to railways by weather conditions.
“The aim was to identify more systematically what kind of hazards and risks different weather phenomena pose to the safety and reliability of the railway system,” says Enni Lehtinen, Sweco’s risk management specialist. Identifying weather risks helps to prepare for various threats in advance.
In addition to normal weather conditions, weather risks and climate risks affecting occupational safety were taken into account in the risk assessment. According to Lehtinen, extreme weather phenomena will increasingly affect rail traffic in the future. “I believe that climate risks will also be more visible in railway planning and its management in the future.”
Weather risks were classified in stakeholder workshops
According to Lehtinen, Sweco’s experts are already familiar with the safety activities of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency in railway project track planning, which always includes risk management. Knowledge of the operations of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and the entire railway system was useful in the weather risk assessment.
“We carried out the weather risk assessment in accordance with a standardized process and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency’s own guidelines and risk matrix.”
Risks related to different weather conditions were identified and their magnitude assessed in online workshops together with representatives of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency and various stakeholders. The pace of work was intense, as a total of nine workshops were carried out over a period of two months. A theme was chosen for each workshop, such as storms, floods, heatwaves, thunderstorms and snowfall, as well as freeze-thaw cycles.
“The client representatives and stakeholders committed to intensive workshops, which shows that weather conditions are considered an important issue on the railways, which affects, among other things, the operational reliability of traffic,” Lehtinen says.
The biggest weather risks are winds and snowfall
The risk workshops facilitated by Sweco produced information on risks related to weather conditions, their magnitude and possible management measures together with various actors. High winds and heavy snowfall were identified as the most significant weather risks. The magnitude of each risk determined its category of measures.
“The magnitude of weather risks can be reduced by influencing either the severity of the consequences or the likelihood of the risk materialising,” Lehtinen says.
The risks and proposed measures were recorded in the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency’s TUTKA system, which is used in self-monitoring and risk management. “The client can now have further discussions about the necessary risk management measures with the various actors in the railway system,” Lehtinen says.