Commuter train heat delays?
Many commuter trains in the Washington, D.C. area operate under speed restrictions during hot weather. CSX, which owns many of the tracks that commuter railroads use, says they impose speed restrictions because heat once caused a rail to buckle, leading to an Amtrak derailment.
Is this a common practice? It gets hot in Chicago and New York--does Metra or MTA impose speed restrictions during hot weather?
Post Author:
massysett | 9:44 PM |
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Yeah, this is a global phenomenon 'cos it comes down to the laws of physics. In hot summers in the UK, tracks buckle and trains slow down. And everyone whines about it. And everyone is convinced steel doesn't expand in France, or something. Hot countries prestress their rails: stretching them on a jig before they are laid so the expected thermal expansion is already exhausted when they are bolted in place.
Why don't we? The more you stretch the rails, the more they contract when it gets cold. And it gets cold a lot more often in Britain, and I would hazard in DC too, than it gets hot enough to buckle rails: so you'd pay for the reduced service disruptions in summer with more disruption in winter, but you would actually get more winter disruption than you prevented in summer.
