"CJG" wrote in message
...
Well apparently part of the problem is not enough gravel/stones. I can't
remember the exact details. Something to do with it helps with the
expansion of the metal. Anyway the reason there isn't enough stones
round the rail? Cost-cutting.

With respect, it's ********. Just another example of Bowker and his minions
trying to justify their little empire by slagging off every other aspect of
the rail industry. Never, in the history of railways in the UK, has any
organisation attracted such little respect or such widepsread contempt as
the SRA does (not even Railtrack!). It justifies its tenuous existence by
propagating lies about any other part of the industry, which the ignorant
media then pick up and repeat (unverified) to the general public, who
swallow it whole and then come out with blind, naive comments on national
news reports which merely fuel more of the uninformed public to make
ludicrous statements about the rail industry. Remember, Bowker was one of
the guilty parties alleging that the current state of the railways was down
to 30 years of under-investment by British Rail, which has been proven to be
nothing more than an out-and-out lie by the distinguished transport writer
Roger Ford, in the current edition of "Modern Railways" magazine.

There *were* instances of replacement rail, which was laid following the
Hatfield derailment and the gauge corner cracking problems, not being
stressed after it was laid - but that is an entirely different issue.

And also the rest of the world manages to run its public transport with
2inches of snow, storms, rain, sunshine bringing the whole
infrastructure to a halt. So you tell me what the rest of the world has
that Britain doesn't?

As others have already explained, the rest of Europe stresses its
long-welded rail within different parameters, appropriate to the standard
weather conditions in the country concerned. Nevertheless, the UK is not the
only country suffering from restrictions due to weather conditions beyond
the expected norm.