4 ms·

> The problem is that if we stressed Britain’s rails to the same degree as those in very hot countries, there would be the risk of increased tension on the rail

> The problem is that if we stressed Britain’s rails to the same degree as those in very hot countries, there would be the risk of increased tension on the rails in the winter. This doesn't make sense, relative to many European countries the UK has much milder summers and winters.

acer4666 4y ago
The article explains that European countries replace their tracks between summer and winter
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- lrem 4y ago
  That seems inconsistent with my experience, unless they manage to do it completely without disturbing traffic.
  - gsnedders 4y ago
    A lot of the re-tensioning can be done overnight; there's no actual replacement, just changing the level of (pre)stress the steel is under.
- ThePadawan 4y ago
  All I could find is this paragraph: > Some countries regularly have extremes in temperature that affect their railway. They may adjust their rails between summer and winter, or have other measures in place to manage the effects over the long term. Which, when paraphrased, says: "Other countries may or may not do something else". (Which, when paraphrased, says the PR person had no effing clue.)
  - jaclaz 4y ago
    Also "adjust" does not mean "replace".
gizajob 4y ago
In the UK, the railway in summer breaks because it gets too warm. In winter it breaks because leaves get on the line or it is too cold. If its snowing, forget it. For a country whose national pastime is the weather, we don't deal with it very well the second it shifts out of its bland average. We spend the whole year wishing it would get hot and sunny, and then freak out the second it does.
- lazide 4y ago
  Sounds like Seattle!
- permo-w 4y ago
  you could argue that that's because we have such mild weather. in other countries typical changes in the weather are a bigger deal, so it's less appropriate for small talk. this would go some way to explaining why trains stop running when it's very rainy/hot/cold/leafy/snowy. we don't expect the weather to be drastic, and it rarely is, so we're not prepared for it when it happens. I have no idea whether any of that is true (I doubt it), but it was interesting to write out.
  - nicoburns 4y ago
    British weather is indeed often milder than that of other countries, but it’s also often much less predictable. In some countries it’s pretty reliably hot and sunny all summer and snowy all winter.
    - throwaway294566 4y ago
      In Britain, reliably, once per day it'll rain. Only the rest of the weather is unpredictable.
      - nicoburns 4y ago
        Not in the past few weeks!
    - 4y ago
ThePadawan 4y ago
The Swiss railway has a (DE/FR/IT only) page at [0] to explain what they do. - Start adjusting the tension on tracks starting in March when it gets warmer - Use more expensive concrete sleepers where high forces appear (as TFA mentions) - Cool exceptionally problematic parts of the track with water from tank cars So in summary: - spend money - spend money - spend money That could explain why Network Rail isn't keen on doing any of that. [0] https://company.sbb.ch/de/medien/dossier-medienschaffende/sommerdienst-sbb.html https://company.sbb.ch/de/medien/dossier-medienschaffende/so...
- Sharlin 4y ago
  It’s amazing how many problems are solvable simply by spending money.
  - ThePadawan 4y ago
    A very Swiss attitude. Like that time in 2016 when a Swiss town paid a 290k CHF fine rather than house Syrian refugees [0]! [0] https://lenews.ch/2016/06/16/swiss-town-pays-instead-of-taking-refugees/ https://lenews.ch/2016/06/16/swiss-town-pays-instead-of-taki...
    - jeffrallen 4y ago
      Yes that's shameful behavior. Good thing there are 5000 other communes that take their social responsibilities seriously.
    - sofixa 4y ago
      Similarly in France there's a minimum percentage of social housing cities larger than X have to have, and some rich cities prefer paying the fine to actually building the required amounts of social housing.
  - jeffrallen 4y ago
    It's amazing how many problems are solvable when a society chooses to solve them.

acer4666 4y ago

The article explains that European countries replace their tracks between summer and winter

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
lrem 4y ago
That seems inconsistent with my experience, unless they manage to do it completely without disturbing traffic.
- gsnedders 4y ago
  A lot of the re-tensioning can be done overnight; there's no actual replacement, just changing the level of (pre)stress the steel is under.
ThePadawan 4y ago
All I could find is this paragraph: > Some countries regularly have extremes in temperature that affect their railway. They may adjust their rails between summer and winter, or have other measures in place to manage the effects over the long term. Which, when paraphrased, says: "Other countries may or may not do something else". (Which, when paraphrased, says the PR person had no effing clue.)
- jaclaz 4y ago
  Also "adjust" does not mean "replace".

gizajob 4y ago

In the UK, the railway in summer breaks because it gets too warm. In winter it breaks because leaves get on the line or it is too cold. If its snowing, forget it. For a country whose national pastime is the weather, we don't deal with it very well the second it shifts out of its bland average. We spend the whole year wishing it would get hot and sunny, and then freak out the second it does.

lazide 4y ago
Sounds like Seattle!
permo-w 4y ago
you could argue that that's because we have such mild weather. in other countries typical changes in the weather are a bigger deal, so it's less appropriate for small talk. this would go some way to explaining why trains stop running when it's very rainy/hot/cold/leafy/snowy. we don't expect the weather to be drastic, and it rarely is, so we're not prepared for it when it happens. I have no idea whether any of that is true (I doubt it), but it was interesting to write out.
- nicoburns 4y ago
  British weather is indeed often milder than that of other countries, but it’s also often much less predictable. In some countries it’s pretty reliably hot and sunny all summer and snowy all winter.
  - throwaway294566 4y ago
    In Britain, reliably, once per day it'll rain. Only the rest of the weather is unpredictable.
    - nicoburns 4y ago
      Not in the past few weeks!
  - 4y ago

ThePadawan 4y ago

The Swiss railway has a (DE/FR/IT only) page at [0] to explain what they do. - Start adjusting the tension on tracks starting in March when it gets warmer - Use more expensive concrete sleepers where high forces appear (as TFA mentions) - Cool exceptionally problematic parts of the track with water from tank cars So in summary: - spend money - spend money - spend money That could explain why Network Rail isn't keen on doing any of that. [0] https://company.sbb.ch/de/medien/dossier-medienschaffende/sommerdienst-sbb.html https://company.sbb.ch/de/medien/dossier-medienschaffende/so...

Sharlin 4y ago
It’s amazing how many problems are solvable simply by spending money.
- ThePadawan 4y ago
  A very Swiss attitude. Like that time in 2016 when a Swiss town paid a 290k CHF fine rather than house Syrian refugees [0]! [0] https://lenews.ch/2016/06/16/swiss-town-pays-instead-of-taking-refugees/ https://lenews.ch/2016/06/16/swiss-town-pays-instead-of-taki...
  - jeffrallen 4y ago
    Yes that's shameful behavior. Good thing there are 5000 other communes that take their social responsibilities seriously.
  - sofixa 4y ago
    Similarly in France there's a minimum percentage of social housing cities larger than X have to have, and some rich cities prefer paying the fine to actually building the required amounts of social housing.
- jeffrallen 4y ago
  It's amazing how many problems are solvable when a society chooses to solve them.