Britain's Railway Go Slow Due to WRONG TYPE OF WEATHER

[XTR]

Britain's railways are wilting in the latest heatwave, with operators worried the rails might buckle in the high temperatures.


Commuters are used to hearing about leaves on the tracks, flooding and even the wrong type of snow. But this time it's the heat that is causing chaos.

Speed limits on some of the busiest routes across the network have been lowered, causing delays for thousands of travellers.

Long-distance Virgin services will be worst hit with extended journey times between London and Birmingham, Manchester, Crewe and Scotland.

Peter Rayner, an expert in railway operations and safety, said: "They are saying there is a chance of a buckled rail so we will impose speed restrictions, which is commendable.

"What does need to be answered, however, is how the railway network has been able to get into the condition where such action is necessary.

"That brings us back to the stewardship of Railtrack and probably their contractors who have, over the years, failed to put sufficient ballast down, which is an intrinsic part of this problem."

Forecasters believe this could be the hottest week of the year - and possible they hottest week ever.

Among other services affected are those between London and Birmingham - reduced from half hourly to hourly - and the West Coast main line between Euston and Crewe has a 60mph limit.

A 60mph restriction has also been imposed across southern England until early evening.

Routes from London's Liverpool Street to Chelmsford and Norwich will also be affected.

Sky News weather presenter Lisa Burke says there will be "copious amounts of sunshine" just about everywhere with temperatures rising through the week as the hot air drifts up from the continent.

"It's going to be hot, 35C in the South," Lisa said.

"We might even see the record broken in the south-east."
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Nearly as bad as "Leaves on the track"

[Agent]

Yeah, i wonder how they cope in other hotter country's ?

[CocoPops]

It's an absolute joke tbh.

This country's public transport sucks, and yet they keep raising the prices

[steve threlfall]

Unbelievable. After reading something like that, do you feel safe on a train?

[Zathras]

Err, exactly the same happens in France, Germany and Spain in hot weather. Get your facts right before being so quick to criticise guys.

[kemosabe]

Err, exactly the same happens in France, Germany and Spain in hot weather. Get your facts right before being so quick to criticise guys.

these are fair criticisms, this country doesn't have one of the best transport systems in europe, and its knowhere near the safest, what with recent accidents.
It doesnt help, the trains not being to operate properly because of a raise in temperature, surely trains and traintracks etc should be able to withstand higher temperatures, if other countries have these types of high temperatures how do thier trains cope??

[Dr. X]

You'd rather they kept it hush hush and risked serious derailments and accidents?

Hear hear to Network Rail for losing face and keeping us a bit safer on the rails (my only form of transport).

[steve threlfall]

Originally posted by Zathras
Err, exactly the same happens in France, Germany and Spain in hot weather. Get your facts right before being so quick to criticise guys.

Think youve missed the point there. This is another black mark on what is a frankly a joke of a transport service

[Ravens Nest]

I think they should tarmac all the train tracks and run buses on them, they would be the only traffic on the road and if they breakdown at least they can be moved out of the way..

[Flibb]

Agree on that Zathras. My Dad worked on the track and they have always had the problem with it getting hot and cold. The track has expansion joints built in but they can only take about 2ft each. When that 2ft has been taken up the track it trys to bend. Lots of bridges also have sodding great heatsinks in them, you might have noticed that bridges are filled with oil every now and again. UK isnt only place to have had accidents recently, Germany has also had its fair share.
Flibb

[steve threlfall]

Originally posted by Ravens Nest
I think they should tarmac all the train tracks and run buses on them, they would be the only traffic on the road and if they breakdown at least they can be moved out of the way..

they certainly travel a lot faster than trains lol

[Zathras]

Originally posted by kimosabi
these are fair criticisms, this country doesn't have one of the best transport systems in europe, and its knowhere near the safest, what with recent accidents.

Again, get your facts right. Check the fatalities per passenger kilometre on Britain's rail network and you'll find it's significantly lower than the equivalent figure for Germany, somewhere often quoted as having an "excellent" train system. In fact, if this is the de-rigeur anti-train rant, let's look at fatalities and serious injuries based on form of transport in the UK:

               Deaths/                         Deaths/     Ave   
              1,000 mill     Average speed      100 pass    time btw
                pass-km                          years      accidents
 
Rail            3.7             120 km/h          0.4        250 years
Bus/coach        17              80 km/h          1.2         83  "
Water            46              40 km/h          1.4         71  "
pedestrian      710               5 km/h          3.1         32  "
Car              58              90 km/h          4.6         22  "
Cycle           932              20 km/h         16          6.3  "
Motorcycle    2,014             110 km/h        190         0.52  "

The ave time btw accidents is assuming constant travel on the mode of transport. The figures are from the DoT.

It doesnt help, the trains not being to operate properly because of a raise in temperature, surely trains and traintracks etc should be able to withstand higher temperatures, if other countries have these types of high temperatures how do thier trains cope??

The steel has to be stressed to a certain temperature given that metal expands with heat. Steel is also an extremely good absorber of radiant heat, so when the in-the-shade temperature may only be 30C, the railhead temperature can get above 60 or 70C. The rail also contracts as temperatures lower, giving raise to cracked and buckled rail and potential derailments. As such the steel needs to be 'tuned' to a temperature. Here in the UK and in most of northern Europe this temperature is set at 27C, so when it is exceptionally hot speed restrictions are needed to prevent the rail expanding too much and buckling. There are speed limits all across France, Germany and Belgium at present, not just in the UK, and these speed limits are not just for old rail services but newer ones, TGV/Eurostar and the like. As for countries with a much larger temperature range, the speed limits on the rails there is much lower and a lot more is spent on repairing the damage caused and replacing railhead a lot more frequently. Given the chronic underinvestment in the railways in this country, it's not something we can do here. As for buses travelling faster than trains, even with the current speed restrictions you can get a train from London to Birmingham, Preston, York, Glasgow, Edinburgh etc that takes roughly three-quarters of the time of the equivalent National Express coach service. Given full speed running and it's down to below half. The service from York to London averages 114mph - show me a bus that can even get close to that speed.

[Ravens Nest]

Originally posted by steve threlfall
they certainly travel a lot faster than trains lol

Also just think how much easier they would be to replace as well as repair.

[luke313]

[rant]
Do you guys read Zathras's posts? He conclusively shows that the train service we have here is safer than we believe, and faster than buses.
[/rant]
Now the punctuality of our train service, thats a different matter entirely

[dirtydog]

I thought this sounded ridiculous too, until I heard the facts (as above) on Channel 4 news. They also said that usually there isn't a total blanket speed restriction but just localised ones. The reason for the blanket restriction today is put down to extreme caution on the part of Network Rail as they are afraid of being held responsible (manslaughter etc) if there was an accident. Apparently the train operating companies didn't want the restriction and aren't happy.

[Ravens Nest]

[rant] Do you guys read Zathras's posts? He conclusively shows that the train service we have here is safer than we believe, and faster than buses. [/rant] he he it's too big i suppose, i know i didnt read it until you did your rant!


Rail 3.7 120 km/h 0.4 250 years
Thats an impressive stat, but when i used to use the southend central line they never seemed to go anywhere near 120 km/h (74.52 mp/h) 60 mp/h was the highest and that was only between dagenham and barking..

So that statistic must be taking in to account the long distance journeys, like the ones with virgin trains.

Bus/coach 17 80 km/h 1.2 83 years
The bus service on normal roads will be slow due to so many obstacles and traffic jams, 80km/h (49.68 mp/h) but on a tarmac private road it would have a much higher average speed.

But your stats do show that trains are the most effective and safe transport we have, i just wish there was some better alternatives