Network Rail’s Adaptation Reports (ARP) 

Since the introduction of the Adaptation Reporting Power (ARP) under the Climate Change Act 2008, Network Rail has produced adaptation reports for Defra every 5 years. These reports showcase our progress in understanding the potential impacts of climate change on the performance and safety of the rail network, and what we’re doing to increase our resilience. 

Adaptation reports cover: 

• Our assets and what we need to do to operate and maintain them 
• Interfaces with other organisations and communities across our five regions
• The physical climate change risks to these  
• Summary of progress against the last adaptation report 
• Our action plan for the next five years 

Our latest report can be found here: 

• Network Rail Fourth Adaption Report – December 2024 (PDF) 
• Appendix A Integrated Climate Change Risk Assessment (.xlsx)

Our third ARP report contains more detail on some areas referenced in ARP4 and is available below:

• Network Rail Third Adaptation Report December 2021 (PDF) 

See the Climate Risk Assessment page for guidance on how to use the information outlined here in developing a local climate risk assessment.

Regional climate change action plans

Each of our five regions have developed Weather Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation (WRCCA) Plans for Control Period 7 (CP7), 2024–2029. These identify the risks to our assets and outline how we’re developing our understanding of them at a local level. We use them to make informed decisions on actions and investment to improve our resilience during CP7, and longer term. We’ve developed our CP7 plans to support the delivery of our funders’ and stakeholders’ key priorities. As such, they also include interventions that mean we can minimise and adapt to the impact of extreme weather and climate change and put in place schemes that make our business more sustainable. 

• Summary of CP7 WRCCA Plan (PDF) 
• Eastern (PDF)
• North West & Central (PDF)
• Scotland (PDF)
• Southern (PDF)
• Wales & Western (PDF)

The CP7 WRCCA Plans were finalised and issued to the Office of Rail and Road alongside Network Rail’s CP7 Delivery Plan in March 2024. WRCCA Plans previous control periods are available from the Climate Change Adaptation page on the Network Rail website.
 
We are currently working with train operators on the development of their WRCCA plans with a view to developing integrated plans for CP8 (2029 – 2034). This will align with the bringing together of the rail industry under ‘Great British Railways’.