PROJECTED increases in mean temperatures and more extreme temperature days due to climate change could affect commuters on the V/Line rail network.
First published in the 13 February edition of the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen.
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Trains slow to 90kmph from 160kmph in temperatures above 36 degrees celsius due to the expansion of the steel tracks.
The CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology’s Climate Change in Australia report predicts that extreme weather days are set to increase in Victoria from 1995’s 11 days over 35 degrees to:
- a projected 12-15 days a year above 35 degrees by 2030, and
- a projected 19-32 days a year above 35 degrees in the worst projections by 2090.
V/Line spokesperson Ebony Jordan told the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen: “V/Line recognises the climate has the potential to impact on our operations and we currently implement a range of measures to reduce the impact on our customers.”
“V/Line staff spend several months each year on a summer readiness program to improve travel conditions during the heat.
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“As a result we activate our hot weather plan, which includes a hot weather timetable to show realistic travel times and replacing trains with coaches in some instances.”
Passengers are encouraged to travel with bottled water, wear cool clothing and delay travel if they are feeling unwell on hot days.
RELATED: Milking climate change
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Of course they could resleeper the North line between Pakenham and Moe which did not receive concrete sleepers when the RFR was first conceived. Next all they have to do is resleeper to Bairnsdale from Traralgon using concrete sleepers and away you go at normal speed all year round…You know like they do in most comparable countries.
Which V-line trains currently run at 160 kph?
The VLocity DMUs. There is a VLocity set in the picture at the top of this article.
As a regular train traveller, I would guess that it travels at 160 kph for about five minutes.
In truth, Bracks did not introduce a fast train network. He introduced an almost fast train network. Better than the no train network of the Kennett era.