Weather resilience and climate change adaptation will be one of the key themes for our next regulatory Periodic Review, and hence ORR intends to increase the scrutiny of the Weather Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation (WRCCA) plans; improve our understanding of the planning process at regional level and potentially identify opportunities for improvement looking forward to CP7.
In the determination for Control Period 6, there was requirement for Network Rail to update their geographic WRCCA plans to better manage the impacts of climate change on railway infrastructure. Network Rail’s Regions have now produced WRCCA plans for the period 2019-2024, which we wanted to compare with international best practice and guidance, to help us understand the adequacy of the plans and maturity of the planning approach.
Since this is a developing area for the ORR, we commissioned an external consultant specialised in this subject to carry out the review of Network Rail’s route level WRCCA plans. Based on this review, a report has been produced providing an overview of best practice in this area, the maturity of the current WRCCA plans and recommendations for CP7 planning and long-term resilience.