Heat wave: "We are already ready", assures the SNCF

The high temperatures imply an ability of the SNCF to adapt, since the catenaries and the rails are particularly exposed.

Every summer, the company prepares the trains, monitors the tracks and stores hundreds of thousands of bottles of water, hoping that its passengers will not be stranded in the middle of nowhere in the sun.

There is no question of advising against taking the train, as the government did in July 2019, but the particularly early heat wave which affects France in mid-June puts the railway workers on their teeth.

“We are already ready”, reassures a spokesperson for the SNCF.

“We are following a process that is extremely well coordinated, both in terms of the network and the stations and rolling stock.

"Depending on the readings of Météo France and the temperature that could be reached during the day, each territory triggers a different level of the high heat system", he adds.

The Southwest is already on alert.

Rails are particularly sensitive during heat waves, especially as they accumulate heat.

If the outside temperature is 37°C, that of a rail can exceed 55°C and even reach 70°C in direct sunlight.

However, the expansion of the steel risks deforming the track.

On electrified lines, train power cables have the annoying habit of stretching under the effect of heat.

They risk touching the roof of the train, causing an electric arc, and the pantograph (the bow used to capture the current) can tear off the catenary.

Reduced speed trains

During the summer, the agents in charge of the maintenance of the tracks and the catenaries multiply the rounds of surveillance on foot, explains the SNCF.

They mainly occur at the time of the day when the temperatures are the highest.

To complete the system, SNCF Réseau has been using a new rail temperature prediction tool since last year.

In the event of a proven risk, the SNCF prefers to slow down its trains, particularly the TGVs.

It is also necessary to monitor the embankments near the tracks, where fires can be triggered by sparks as trains pass.

On the equipment side, a specific maintenance operation, called “ATS” (for “other systematic work before the hot season”), is carried out in the spring.

It is completed for this year, according to management.

The day before the big summer departures, the activity of the SNCF workshops, the “technicentres”, increases by 20%.

“A special system is then put in place with a reinforcement of the teams on weekends”, underlines the management.

The workshops also stored strategic parts, parts related to the cooling of motors and transformers, pantographs, air conditioning equipment, etc.

One million bottles distributed in 2021

All TGV and Intercités trains are air-conditioned, as are 96% of TER trains and 65% of trains in the Paris suburbs.

The TGVs, whose air conditioning has been “adapted to operate with an outside temperature of 40°C”, are particularly pampered.

"Throughout the hot season, the agents of the Materials Department are mobilized so that all the trains in operation benefit from 100% of the air conditioning equipment in working order", assures the company.

A specific “hotline” has been set up to respond to technicians in the event of an air conditioning problem.

It is in addition to the traditional telephone assistance, which comes to the aid of controllers every day from 6 am to 10.30 pm in the event of an incident.

To assist travelers if things should go wrong, the SNCF has placed strategic stocks, regularly replenished, in stations throughout the country: 500,000 50-centiliter bottles of water, 100,000 meal boxes, 65,000 snacks… Packs of water are also loaded on board the trains.

SNCF says it distributed 1 million bottles of water to its travelers during the summer of 2021.

In the event of a stop during the journey, a device called “Distrib'Bar” provides for the distribution of non-alcoholic drinks at the bar.

It intervenes after one hour of delay if the air conditioning is broken and after two hours if it works correctly.