A Freedom of Information request has revealed that almost 7,000 trains were cancelled in 2024 as a result of flooding.

The data from Network Rail confirmed there were 6,718 train cancellations (4,296 full and 2,422 part cancellations) across the UK in 2024, a 15% rise with trains running a total of 187,475 minutes late, equivalent to a third of a year’s worth of delays (130 days).

Although this represents a 4% drop in the total number of cancellations compared to 2023, since 2014, flooding has caused 48,562 train cancellations and racked up more than 1.4 million minutes of delays. The data was revealed by Round Our Way, an organisation that supports people impacted by climate change in the UK.

The story was featured in The Mirror, iNews and Rail Business Daily.

Key Findings

• Total Cancellations in 2024: 6,718 (4,296 full / 2,422 part)
• Minutes Delayed in 2024: 187,475
• Comparison with 2023: 4% fewer cancellations (6,985 in 2023), but a 15% increase in delay minutes (from 163,536 in 2023 to 187,475 in 2024).
• Third Highest on Record: The total cancellations in 2024 are the third highest since 2014, behind 2020 (8,483) and 2023 (6,985). Delays in 2024 are also the third highest since 2014, behind 2019 and 2016.

Great Western Rail services were the worst affected with 2,068 cancellations and 53,303 minutes of flood related delays, followed by Northern Trains Ltd (1,046 cancellations, 22,457 minutes) and Transport for Wales Rail Ltd (855 cancellations, 20,091 minutes).

Over the past decade, ScotRail has had the highest overall cancellation count (9,450), while Northern Trains Ltd. recorded the greatest number of delay minutes (198,657) in the same period.

Travellers heading off from London Paddington were the worst hit, with the station recording 406 rain related cancellations in 2024, with Cardiff Central (249) and London Euston (242) close behind.

---

---

Train cancellations are climate change in action

The Met Office UK State of the Climate Report found that 2023 was the seventh wettest year on record since 1836 and a recently published Met Office review noted that the 2023/2024 storm season was particularly busy, culminating in Storm Lilian in August 2024, the first time ‘L’ was reached in a single storm season since the naming system began in 2015. 

Further analysis from World Weather Attribution found that Autumn and winter storm rainfall in 2023/24 in the UK and Ireland was made about 20% heavier by human-caused climate change.

Train deaths prompt a safety first approach to floods

In 2020 a train derailed after hitting a landslip at Stonehaven, North East Scotland, three people died. Rail operators have to be cautious due to safety concerns relating to floods, with the public unaware of the extent of the problem. Ex-Network Rail employee “John” with experience of engineering works on the rail network said: 

"Now if anyone sees fast running water onto railway lines, trains must be stopped and the line examined to ensure the ballast has not been washed away."

"Often only a bit of information is given, such as, 'due to weather conditions we are going a little bit slower'. I am a lot wiser as to what can affect train punctuality and have a lot more understanding of the domino effect when one thing goes wrong and how this can affect trains across the network. It's a very finely balanced operation day-to-day on what is essentially a Victorian railway.”

He added: "The amount of rainfall is increasing and on top of that, with so many new buildings, rain has nowhere to go. There is simply too much concrete."

Train conductor: “the railway track was hanging in mid air”

Michael Barnes (not his real name) is a train conductor with three decades of experience. In March 2024, he said, LNER and Cross Country trains between Berwick and Edinburgh were delayed due to a landslide in the Scottish borders.

Mr Barnes also said that “in 2024 on my way to Southampton, I saw the effects of a flood on an old Victorian embankment. The railway track was hanging in mid air. So two lines had to go into one for weeks, creating a bottleneck for both passenger and freight trains. Services were thinned out, meaning far fewer trains”.

“Anywhere that has overhead lines is susceptible to wind damage,” added Mr Barnes, noting that some trains are all electric while some are diesel and others a mixture. 

“There is still ongoing electrification work to do away with diesel lines. But, the power lines need to be built more robustly. A lot of masts holding up wires were not ideally spaced, they were put up too far apart and that means wires sometimes get wrapped around the pantograph (the apparatus on the roof of an electric train).”

He added: “Flooding affects not just the ballast, which is the stones beneath the track - there is also an electric current in the rails, which works the signals. When water floods over tracks, there is short circuiting, the signalling goes haywire and that is obviously dangerous. There are then more bottlenecks as drivers are told the train is not going, or they must drive at a reduced speed, or drive ‘on sight’ rather than according to signals.”

Our railway lines are not ready for the challenge, he said. 

“Sometimes, rather than just run at caution, everything stops and a line is shut. Ultimately it’s Network Rail who decide as they own the infrastructure, but signal boxes are often not in the relevant place. For example, the signal box for Darlington is in York. Many other signal boxes these days are also in York, the lines are generally controlled from a central point. 

“This means if there is localised flooding the authorities are slow to react. They send a van to check but if roads are impassable, it all takes longer. There might be, say, a flood 25 miles away, with bridges washed away, but where I am it may be bright and sunny.

---

UK’s transport infrastructure need investment to cope with climate change

Newcastle University Professor of Climate Change Impacts, Hayley Fowler, said: “Our national transport networks are not resilient to current weather extremes, and will require increased investment to keep up with the projections of increasing summer heatwaves and winter flooding and windstorms. 

“There is a need to think more strategically about hotspots where the risks of disruption are greatest as these growing extreme weather risks have the potential to have a major impact on people and on the economy. There is no doubt that strategic investments in climate resilience now will significantly reduce the future costs of extreme weather.”

Sofie Jenkinson, Co-Director at Round Our Way, said: “Climate change is a life and death issue for our rail system. These findings show the ongoing vulnerability of the UK’s rail infrastructure to extreme weather caused by climate change.

“The significant rise in delays indicates the growing disruption and concerns about safety beneath the service of our creaking rail infrastructure and the impact of extreme weather caused by climate passengers and operators alike. 

“With more than 48,000 cancellations due to flooding over the past decade, it’s clear that long-term resilience planning and investments are essential if we want to keep the network moving.”