Train services cancelled 'due to heat'

[Maggy J]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13926651

Should have seen that coming.

Heat on overhead power lines has caused the cancellation of trains between London Liverpool Street and Suffolk and Essex.
The National Express East Anglia hourly service from London to Ipswich will be cancelled from 1202 BST while others will terminate at Colchester.
The Southend to Liverpool Street line is also hit with a total of 35 trains affected.
The company said it intended to operate a full evening service.

[RizzyKing]

This is so typical of modern day UK says a lot and none of it good about this country anymore .

[Zee]

wow this country really is a joke, a little snow, maybe some rain, and now a bit of warmth and train services get shut down, how laughable.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

This is so typical of modern day UK says a lot and none of it good about this country anymore .

And people think we would cope if some major event hit us.

[Hom3r]

Don't forget that the heat can expand the tracks and cause them to bend (may be minor), but what would happen if a train derails and people get hurt, the rail companys are in a no win situation (dammed if they do, dammed if they don't)

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Don't forget that the heat can expand the tracks and cause them to bend (may be minor), but what would happen if a train derails and people get hurt, the rail companys are in a no win situation (dammed if they do, dammed if they don't)

But surely with modern engineering and technology they should have overcome this.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Don't forget that the heat can expand the tracks and cause them to bend (may be minor), but what would happen if a train derails and people get hurt, the rail companys are in a no win situation (dammed if they do, dammed if they don't)

It's the overhead power lines that were not designed for this 'heat'

National Express East Anglia said: "Due to high temperature on Monday 27 June, speed restrictions have been imposed due to the design of the overhead line equipment.

Sounds like cost-cutting design to me. There's no reason why they couldn't be designed to cope with the heat. Trains in Spain, Italy etc. don't come to a halt when the sun's out.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by danielf

It's the overhead power lines that were not designed for this 'heat'

"What temperature do we expect these to suffer during the summer months, John?"

"23c Bill. that's bloody hot that is."

[denphone]

Originally Posted by danielf

It's the overhead power lines that were not designed for this 'heat'



Sounds like cost-cutting design to me. There's no reason why they couldn't be designed to cope with the heat. Trains in Spain, Italy etc. don't come to a halt when the sun's out.

Exactly.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Don't forget that the heat can expand the tracks and cause them to bend (may be minor), but what would happen if a train derails and people get hurt, the rail companys are in a no win situation (dammed if they do, dammed if they don't)

Correct.

From what I've heard, this seems to be a precautionary measure as opposed to an actual failure so I'd like to know how whether this sitaution is another of those in which health and safety rules have been interpreted/applied over cautiously. Corporate manslaughter laws have had the effect of making those who run companies ever more cautious about what they do.

Having siad that, had those responsible designed track etc. to cope with every meteorological eventuality we'd probably all be complaining about the massive cost of catering for events that rarely happen.

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by Osem

Correct.

From what I've heard, this seems to be a precautionary measure as opposed to an actual failure so I'd like to know how whether this sitaution is another of those in which health and safety rules have been interpreted/applied over cautiously. Corporate manslaughter laws have had the effect of making those who run companies ever more cautious about what they do.

Having siad that, had those responsible designed track etc. to cope with every meteorological eventuality we'd probably all be complaining about the massive cost of catering for events that rarely happen.

Wasn't the tracks that were at issue..

[Welshchris]

With some of the people travelling earlier on the train i can see why. One Guy lifted his arms and the smell from his arm pits knocked me over. When i eventually came to the train was empty.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Wasn't the tracks that were at issue..

Yes I know that in this case is was power lines but the same thing applies whether it's the rails, the power lines or the signalling. The cost of designing infrastructure will increase according to the number of eventualities we want it to to cope with. In the case of rail (but it applies to roads, airports etc.) I presume nobody here wants to pay higher fares or more taxes by way of subsidy than they already do, so if that's the case I think we have to accept that our infrastructure hasn't and won't be built to withstand all extreme weather events. We also have to accept that in the interests of health and safety, companies are not going to want to expose themselves to risk and will tend to sometimes overreact to potential safety issues whether these be possible derailments or trains full of commuters getting stuck in the heat in the middle of nowhere.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Osem

so I think we're stuck with the notion that our infrastructure hasn't and won't be built to withstand extreme events.

We think the ground drying out when it doesn't rain is an extreme event. snow on the roads in winter is very extreme.

[Damien]

I think it's worth noting that this was a single franchise and not National Rail as a whole.

National Express East Anglia to be precise and I have the misfortune that this the franchise which serves my region and it's reliability is awful. I was not surprised at all that they cancelled services due the heat, they cancel services all the time for any reason as often as they can. It's terrible. They did the same in the Winter due to the cold.

For a couple of weeks they had 4 carriage trains where they used to have 8. People could not get on as the carriage where rammed to breaking point and certainly way over capacity. These often arrived after a previous train had been cancelled - thus the equivalent of 16 carriages of people - two trains of 8 - were served by a single train of 4. This was a daily occurrence for a while. Sometimes worse were two prior trains were cancelled and other trains taken completely out of service on other lines with customers advised to take our train.

I pay more to take the underground now which is much more reliable. I believe National Express are going to lose the franchise when it comes up for renewal, they were threatened it might even be cancelled earlier. It's horrible.