Natural Risk Study - Report on Strong Wind Hazard

About thirty countries in the world have or plan to build high speed railways lines (UIC, 2013). However, the transport by rail is still vulnerable face to natural disasters, extreme climate conditions or particular geographic situations. Advanced technologies allow to anticipate some situations and to propose some tools to eliminate or at least limit the risks generated by the environment.

As a matter of fact, the capacity of the railway community and its research units to build, develop and expand some efficient measures of protection, is a major issue for the future and the credibility of high speed railway.

Aware of this impact, the International Union of Railways (UIC) wanted to study and identify risky situations, to measure their potential impact on high speed and intercity lines exploitation, and to list the state of the art on the measures permitting to limit their negative consequences. This main stake was the subject of a first report named “UIC - High Speed and Intercity natural risks, Synthesis” and produced in November 2012.

The present report deals with one of these natural hazard whose transport by rail is still vulnerable : the strong wind, and particularly the cross wind.