It’s almost a month now since the chaos on our railway caused by lines buckling in the hot weather (see blog entry for 24th July) – and since then, I’ve been trying to find out why this was a peculiarly British problem, with railways in many European countries which were even hotter than ours continuing to operate ok. And indeed, a railway is being built across the desert in the Middle East, from Dubai to Oman, where the temperatures frankly make our heatwave just look like a cool summer’s day. Is it a case of “the wrong sort of sun?” Not quite, but I am grateful to a colleague who has referred me to the answer published by Network Rail – see https://www.networkrail.co.uk/stories/why-rails-buckle-in-britain/. Apparently it is the wrong kind of lines. Our it seems, are not stress-tested to cope with the soaring heat whereas those in Europe and the Middle East are – hot weather happens so rarely in the UK that it would not justify the extra cost. I’m grateful for the answer though perhaps Network Rail should consider the impact of global warming a little bit more.
