As the climate warms, intensifying heat waves are throwing the U.S. passenger rail system off schedule.
Owen: “Heat is incredibly damaging and it’s by far the biggest climate risk that Amtrak faces.”
Miles Owen is the senior climate resilience specialist at Amtrak. He says train rails expand in the heat. So high temperatures can cause tracks to buckle and kink.
And along the East Coast, Amtrak trains are powered by electric lines running overhead. Those lines can expand and sag during a heat wave.
Owen says Amtrak is investigating ways to keep tracks cooler – for example, painting rails white to reflect the heat, or adding shade at critical junctions.
But he says the solutions are limited.
Owen: “Right now, the best solution we have is to slow down the trains.”
Lowering a train’s speed can help reduce pressure on the rails and decrease the chance of track damage or derailment. So when rail temperatures get too hot, Amtrak limits train speeds to 80 or 100 miles per hour, depending on the temperature.
So passengers traveling during the hot summer months may want to leave extra time to get to their destinations.
The longer trips may be inconvenient, but they’re part of ensuring safe train travel in a warming world.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
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