SIXTY sustainably powered weather stations are now monitoring the railway between London Euston and Carlisle to keep passengers and freight moving safely.

Network Rail has installed the solar-powered weather watchers on the West Coast main line and across parts of the North West so engineers can react fast before and during extreme weather events.

The £1.3million investment gives staff access to real-time data so response teams can be sent to the right place at the right time to fix the railway rapidly.

The scientific surveillance stations measure wind speed & direction, wind gust and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, dew point and rain fall totals.

In the longer term the data gathered will help Network Rail weather experts to predict which parts of the network are more vulnerable to bad weather before it even hits.

Talisa Fletcher, Network Rail service delivery manager, said: “With extreme weather incidents increasing we’ve invested £1.3m to improve our weather monitoring capabilities on the West Coast main line and in the north west.

“Our solar powered weather stations will help us to better understand weather patterns and during stormy weather we can send our response teams to where they’re most needed which will help us to reduce disruption and keep passengers safe.”