Low-tech solution protects railway lines from overheating

Turner said: “Sometimes a simple lick of paint is all that’s required to solve a problem, as German rail company Deutsche Bahn (DB) is demonstrating with a project aimed at tackling the problem of overheating rails during heatwaves.

“During intense summers exacerbated by climate change, conventional rails absorb heat and the steel expands, causing stress on both the rails and trackbed. DB’s solution involved painting around 1km of the rail track on the high-speed line between Hanover and Würzburg’s with an environmentally friendly white paint in order to reflect the sun rays, and reduce overheating and rail deformation.

“DB pursued the idea of painting rails white after promising results from an experiment to evaluate the effect of the white paint on a test track at Königsborn, which began in July. The rails were shown to reflect more light and therefore become much less hot than their conventional counterparts.”

A DB spokeswoman tells GlobalData: “Currently, we are testing a water-based emulsion paint, the same paint the Italian railway is using. Due to its white colour and its specific pigmentation, the painted rail has a higher reflectance and lower heat absorption than a normal (brownish) rail.

“Our tests indicate a temperature reduction of up to -7 Kelvin compared to normal conditions.”