Scorching track temperatures pushed significantly above standard operating levels by an extreme heat wave are being blamed for the recent derailment of a San Francisco rapid transit train.
Some 50 passengers needed to be evacuated from a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train when their late afternoon train hit a section of track that had become misaligned under pressure of extreme heat, reports the Los Angeles Times.
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In a statement, BART officials said their “initial assessment is that heat played the main role in the partial derailment by causing a curve in the rail.” If that turns out to be the case, the heat-related accident would be a first for BART.
Temperatures on the track at the time of the accident, which produced only minor injuries, exceeded 140°F (60°C)—35° above standard operating temperatures, says the Los Angeles Times, citing a report from the San Francisco Chronicle.
BART spokesperson Chris Filippi told the Chronicle that track misalignment becomes a risk at 20° above “neutral” operating conditions.
Air temperatures in the Bay Area city of Concord, near where the derailment occurred, reached 103°F the day before the accident.
The extreme temperatures are being recorded as California endures its third consecutive year of drought. “So far, 2022 is the driest year in American history,” writes EuroNews. “Just this month, a heat dome spread from the Desert Southwest to California’s Central Valley, before sliding toward the central and eastern United States.”
Heat-related derailments are “rare but not unheard of” in California, notes the Times. Two cargo train accidents in 2017 and 2020 were both caused by tracks buckling under pressure of extreme heat.
“By 2100, train tracks across the nation could incur $25 to $60 billion in damage because of heat and climate change,” the Times writes, citing a 2019 study in Transport Policy.
