Melting roads, bursting train tracks and firefighters watering bridges. While in Spain we deal with the heat by lowering the blinds, in Europe we are looking for solutions to try to survive a heat wave that has blown up the most basic mobility infrastructures.
“You should look at Japan”. “You should look at how rail transport works in Japan. There it also reaches 40 degrees in summer and the trains are not constantly cancelled” or “it happened 20 years ago, the air conditioning has failed. (…) the problem has existed for a long time and nothing is done.”
There are two comments that reported in one of the local media in Bavaria (Germany). In the text, one of the reporters explains that “the passengers were completely sweaty and accepted the situation with resignation” when it was reported that the regional train in which they were traveling had broken down its air conditioning.
With 35 degrees outside and more than 40 degrees inside, the problem was obvious. So evident that Marco Kragulji, spokesman for the German passenger association “Pro Bahn”pointed out that, quite simply, “Germany has problems with its trains when the heat comes.”
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Germany, Belgium… German trains with broken air conditioning have been just one of the problems encountered by rail traffic in a burning central Europe. And in the country too Tram tracks have been broken in the city of Essen because of the heat.
It is by no means the only case. In Brussels the tram tracks have also jumpedtearing up the asphalt and completely stopping traffic. The causes are simple: train tracks are designed to withstand temperatures typical of countries that used to be colder. Heat expands the materials and ends up splitting them.destroying the infrastructure.
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“We recommend that you do not take the train”. In addition to broken tracks, SNCF (the French Renfe) has recommended that “vulnerable users” don’t take the train. And the problems with the air conditioning are constant and have even been the main reason why Dozens of trains were suspended last week.
The problem is that the heat is being so extreme that it is putting the trains that have been in operation for more than 20 years to the test. Those trains were designed in a context that, except for the heat wave of 2003, does not exist today. And now the Spanish trains are given as an example, much better armed to withstand extreme temperatures.
looking south. In the German media they use the Spanish and Italian infrastructure as an example. They claim that Deutsche Bahn (in this case, the German Renfe) designed the rails for the train to withstand temperatures that are now considered too low. And the problem, they point out in this medium specialized in engineeringit is not the ambient temperature, it is that the tracks, due to the concentrated heat and the passage of the trains, reach much higher temperatures that, now, break the tracks.
Generalists focus on the fact that Spanish and Italian roads use colors that reflect the sun to reduce the temperature. But also They praise the air conditioning systems of Spanish trains that are more powerful and with more recurring departures within the cars.
Both France and Germany point out, however, that the latest generation trains that are arriving on their tracks already use powerful air conditioning systems to face these new situations. And they are even adding batteries to ensure that the air conditioning remains active in case of a breakdown.
Photo | Linus Follert and windy
In Xataka | Some roads are literally melting. It is a gigantic problem that is going to get worse.
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