Rail chaos fears as solar storms could cause 'signal failures and accidents'
Solar storms could cause transport havoc and lead to rail accidents, scientists have warned in a new study.
Fears have been raised that internet access and satellites could be damaged by powerful solar flares. And now a study shows the potential danger for trains due to malfunctioning rail signals.
Much of the infrastructure that the UK relies upon is under threat from geomagnetically induced currents that could disrupt power grids. Around every 11 years dark spots appear on the surface of the sun due to changes in its magnetic field - with the next possibly in 2024 - and a by-product of this are explosions of energy that are fired at our planet.
Researchers at Lancaster University looking into the impact on two railway lines from these solar storms found they could lead to signalling failures due to interference with the electricity transmission and distribution grids.
A team led by Prof Jim Wild and Cameron Patterson focused on the Preston to Lancaster section of the West Coast Main Line and the Glasgow to Edinburgh line. There are more than 50,000 signalling track circuits in the UK, where the signal is controlled by an electrical circuit between the rails.
Mysterious 'heartbeat' coming from thousands of miles above the sun's surface
Mr Patterson stated: “Crucially, our research suggests that space weather is able to flip a signal in either direction, turning a red signal green or a green signal red. This is obviously very significant from a safety perspective. By building a computer model of the signalling track circuits using realistic specifications for the various components of the system, we found that space weather events capable of triggering faults in these track circuits are expected in the UK every few decades.”
He added: “When we experience severe space weather which happens every few decades or extreme space weather seen every century or two, then there is a potential for significant signalling misoperation, which has an obvious safety impact.” Space weather has been known to impact power grids in the last few decades, including outages affecting millions across the Canadian province of Quebec in 1989 and the Swedish city of Malmo in 2003.
Going further back there have even been cases of railway signal failure due to space weather in the 19th century. And in 1859, a massive solar eruption triggered a geomagnetic storm that disrupted telegraph lines across the world.
Prof WIld said: “Other industries such as aviation, electricity generation and transmission, and the space sector are considering the risks to their operations, and exploring how these might be mitigated. It’s important that the rail sector is included in this planning. As our understanding of the space weather hazard improves, it’s possible to consider how to reduce the risks. In future, we could see space weather forecasting being used to make decisions about limiting railway operations if an extreme event is expected, just as meteorological forecasts are used currently."
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