Opinion: The vulnerability and resilience of our railways

The vulnerability of the railways has been highlighted in the past couple of weeks by two very separate events.

The massive software outage caused by the mistake by the aptly named CrowdStrike had a limited effect on railways, but nevertheless demonstrated that there is a vulnerability to both software and hardware failure that has not received sufficient attention.

Then came the co-ordinated vandalism on the TGV network on the eve of the Olympics opening. While, again, the whole network was not brought to a halt, there were huge delays for hundreds of thousands of people, and the well-targeted attack demonstrated how easy it is to disrupt operations.

As I pointed out in an article I wrote for the Daily Telegraph, in many respects railways are remarkably resilient, too. They were quickly back functioning almost normally.

However, that does not negate the key point. Resilience is something that the industry should be looking at more closely - indeed, the creation of Great British Railways should be the starting point for further work in this respect.

I know that there is some behind-the-scenes activity, but I have been informed that it is nothing like enough.

The issue of cyber vulnerability is a subject that I will be investigating further. Therefore, if you have thoughts or inside knowledge, do get in touch via my normal email - christian.wolmar@gmail.com (anonymity guaranteed).

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