The nation’s transportation system was built to withstand various weather conditions. However, the heat dome currently affecting the U.S. has been pushing the infrastructure to its limits. As millions of Americans endure sweltering heat, many have also faced disruptions in transportation systems that have buckled under extreme temperatures.
Adding to the delays were speed restrictions. Amtrak warned on June 20 that trains might slow down to accommodate higher temperatures. The Washington, D.C., Metro implemented similar measures.
“Trains move more slowly during the heat because the tracks are softer and the catenary wires are drooping,” said Clinton Andrews, director of the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University.
Rising temperatures are also taking a toll on transit workers, from rail maintenance staff to ground crews at airports who are exposed to “really life-threatening levels of heat,” according to Andrews. Without them, trains and planes cannot operate.
Andrews emphasized that the U.S. needs a more adaptable infrastructure planning process. “Hot weather has imposed stresses: the sagging catenary wires, the buckled tracks, the train cars whose brakes and motors are overheating, and the workers who are calling in sick,” he said. “But the proximal cause is the fact that we haven’t invested in spring-loaded catenaries that can take up the slack when the wire droops. The fact that we are riding 50-year-old train cars. The fact that our signaling systems are only slowly being updated.”
“Infrastructure systems need regular investment,” Andrews added. “Unfortunately, in much of the United States, we have not been doing that.”
NBC Washington, July 8, 2024
