Rail Infrastructure Resilience: Storms and Floods

Lord McLoughlin Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Pidgeon (LD)]

My Lords—

[Lord McLoughlin (Con)]

My Lords, I start by wishing the Minister a happy birthday—

[Baroness Pidgeon (LD)]

My Lords, first, I wish the Minister a happy birthday. As we have been discussing, extreme weather is our new reality, leading to the Tarka line, which links Barnstaple to Exeter in the south-west, already being closed for 24 days this year as a result of the recent storms. Will the Government commit to increased investment to help our railways adapt to the new climate and to keep passengers moving, whatever the weather?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her good wishes. There have been quite a lot of birthdays in my life so far. The Tarka line is part of what was the Southern route around the northern edge of Dartmoor. The highest rainfall ever in the south-west of England closed the line for a long period of time simply because the bridges had to be inspected to make sure that they were safe for traffic. There was a terrible accident some 40 years ago in Wales, when a bridge collapsed due to erosion after a storm. I can reassure the noble Baroness that Network Rail is looking at some advanced sensor technology in order not to have to wait for rivers to subside sufficiently for divers to inspect the foundations of bridges. That is a fairly modest expenditure, and I think it will help the resilience of the lines to Barnstaple and Okehampton.

[Lord McLoughlin (Con)]

My Lords, what progress is being made on doing some of this resilience work outside just bank holidays and weekends? A programme was set in place by the previous chairman of Network Rail to ensure that this work is done at other times of the year. Is that still being undertaken, and what progress has been made on that front?

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

I think the previous chairman of Network Rail recalls one of the previous Secretaries of State telling him to do something like that—and, as an obedient public servant, that chairman went off and did it. The lines north of Exeter to which the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, referred are, rather unfortunately, closing for two weeks in just a few days’ time. They are being closed in the winter season, when use is less, although it will still be inconvenient, precisely because it is cheaper and much more efficient—and the work gets done better—to do large-scale track renewal and maintenance of drainage and other structures. That cannot be done everywhere but, where it can be done, the noble Lord is absolutely right that the railways should do more of it. The co-ordination that will come from Great British Railways will enable more of that sort of work to be done.