Extreme weather conditions caused by climate change have a negative impact on transportation infrastructure, especially railways. Most common negative impacts of climate change on railways include track buckling, changes in the geometric position of the contact wire, erosion, bridge failures and landslides, which lead to service interruptions, safety hazards and economic losses. This paper analyses the degradation of track superstructure caused by the most common extreme weather conditions in Europe in recent years – high temperatures, heatwaves, floods, storms and extreme winds. It also gives short overview of the methods that could be used during track construction or reconstruction to prevent these damaging effects and highlights the importance of new monitoring methods for track construction using infrared thermography. In addition, a case study of a field measurement on a railway infrastructure in Croatia is presented, where the condition of the track ballast was determined using infrared thermography.

climate change; railway infrastructure; track superstructure; infrared thermography; unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)