Operational vulnerability of the high speed rail infrastructure in Malaysia from climate change risks

Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. Globally the atmosphere and ocean has increasingly getting warmer, the amount of ice on the earth is decreasing, and sea level has risen. The current railway network in Malaysia, over the last decade, has been significantly affected by severe weather conditions such as rainfall, lightning, wind and very high temperatures. These extremes can lead to asset system failure, degraded operation and ultimately, delays to train services. Thus to avoid those disaster happen, such resilience infrastructure is a vital for the new proposed High Speed Railway from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Singapore. Identifying new and innovative way of improving infrastructure, which is resilience during periods of severe weather conditions and as well will secure the operation of HSR once it is open. This study will be focus on the effect of climate change on HSR alignment design in Malaysia, including their operational requirements, local conditions including topographical and geological aspects, together with the operational requirements and local conditions to the design of infrastructure.