1,500 litres of white paint are being painted onto railway tracks ahead of the summer months to keep passengers and freight moving.
Sections of the network will be painted white to reflect the sun and reduce overheating.
2024 was Europe’s warmest summer on record, and the heat can cause a serious challenge for the railway, including buckling rails and overheating.
Buckled rails due to heat caused more than 350,000 delay minutes for passengers between the 1st April 2023 and 31st March 2024.
Network Rail says that a rail painted white is 5°C to 10°C cooler than one left unpainted.
Lisa Angus, Industry Weather Response Director, Network Rail said: “Soaring temperatures on the railway can put a huge amount of pressure on our infrastructure. With extreme weather events becoming more frequent we’re working hard to keep passengers moving through the summer months ahead.
“Last year we announced plans to invest £2.8 billion over the next five years to make the network more resilient to the issues caused by climate change; helping to keep our railway safe, improve performance and minimise disruption.”
Responses
Despite the comments below, these guys are using manual brushes for the closer sections of points, whereas the main rail is done mechanically, which cannot deal with the points sections.
Also they don’t know that this practice is done all around the world.
Yes even in the USA as someone pointed out that they dont.
In the US Western desert regions, temperatures can vary between 50C in the Summer to -20C in the Winter, but the railroads never seem to have problems with buckled track. Perhaps Network Rail should seek some advice from the main US railroad companies (BNSF and Union Pacific) that traverse these regions on how to lay railroad track?
I’d do some research on that because I just did and you are wrong.
With brushes..!
And a pot of paint..!
This says everything about why we are sooo behind in the UK.
The Chinese would have fixed nozzle spray devices fitted to a towalong paint wagon and do a paint run at night.
The idea is great, the delivery is Edwardian.
Whats even more unbelievable is that this is in a promotional “look how clever we are” video as if its something we should be proud of and amazed by.
Just incredible…really incredible.
Stupid idea but could we not just fire some paint in an rhtt and spray away