Earthworks and Drainage Weather Resilience - Targeted Assurance Review - May 2021

For the current 5-year control period (CP6), Network Rail provided high-level plans for Weather Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation, identifying the main themes they are trying to address. These documents did not provide enough detail for ORR to understand exactly what engineering solutions, innovations or other means Network Rail have available to improve their weather resilience. Given the national importance of climate change and the unprecedented competition for public funding due to Covid-19, ORR needed to understand the details of weather resilience improvements, so we can assess Network Rail’s CP7 plans and determine the right level of funding at our next Periodic Review (PR23). So, ORR undertook this Targeted Assurance Review to collect examples of how Network Rail can improve its weather resilience and we have distilled these examples into a simple framework, so that Network Rail, ORR and other stakeholders can make clear and informed decisions for CP7.