Identification of At-Risk Rail Network Segments and Development of Fragility-based Resilience Metrics
This report presents a multi-hazard risk and resilience assessment of the U.S. rail network. The research identifies at-risk rail segments exposed to flash flooding, riverine flooding, extreme heat, and landslides using historical hazard records, federal accident and incident data, and meteorological datasets spanning 2000–2024. Flood exposure is mapped nationally by linking storm records to rail alignments and estimating the frequency and intensity of events at the segment level. For extreme heat, a fragility analysis of 153 documented thermal buckling derailments reveals that a significant share of failures occurred under relatively mild environmental conditions, pointing to infrastructure and maintenance factors rather than weather alone. Geographic patterns show elevated risk in the northern United States for maintenance-driven failures and in the Southwest for environmentally driven events. Results are presented at national, railroad owner, and state scales to support risk mitigation, maintenance prioritization, and resilience planning across the rail network.
Haizhong Wang, PhD
Dr. Haizhong Wang, Clemson University is the Bob Benmosche Endowed Professor in Risk Engineering and System Analytics (RESA) within the Glenn Department of Civil Engineering at Clemson University. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Transportation) and M.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Wang is an internationally recognized expert in transportation system resilience, infrastructure risk analysis, and human-centered modeling of complex infrastructure systems under natural and man-made hazards. His research integrates engineering, hazard science, data analytics, and agent-based modeling to evaluate the interactions among transportation infrastructure, human behavior, and extreme events, supporting risk-informed decision-making for resilient and sustainable infrastructure systems.
Brian M. Staes, PhD
Dr. Staes, a Postdoctoral Scholar at the School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Oregon State University, is an expert in traffic flow theory, hazard and risk modeling, and climate change–induced extreme events related to infrastructure resilience.
Benyamin Ghoreishi, MSc
Benyamin, a PhD student at the School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Oregon State University, is an expert in hazard and risk modeling, climate change-induced extreme events affecting transportation infrastructure, and the optimization of roadway and railway alignments.
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