Wrong Kind Of Sun

‘AFTER the wrong kind of leaves, the wrong kind of snow and the wrong kind of staff comes news that the railways are in thrall to the wrong kind of sun.

The wrong kind of sun

It’s nothing to do with the sun being a non-union member, just that it is so very hot. Indeed, the Guardian says that this sun is so hot that it could cause rails to buckle.

It could also cause the paint on the top of the carriages to peel in a manner displeasing to the eye and the driver’s cup of regulation strength tea not to cool at the required rate.

Fending off any chance of industrial action, Network Rail has imposed speed restrictions of 60mph across much of southern England and the Midlands.

But the real culprit might not be under-investment and work-shy railwaymen, but global warming. The Independent asks if this heatwave is evidence that the planet is heating up.

For proof that it is, the paper shows forest fires sweeping through Portugal and Spain and watches polar bears in a French zoo slurp on mackerel-flavour ice lollies as the country swelters.

The paper moves onto Germany, where Dresden train station is a tangle of train tracks on parched grass, although the trains are moving, as they are in Italy.

Perhaps the sun’s not to blame for our impoverished rail service after all. Perhaps, it’s just the wrong kind of planet..?

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Posted: 5th, August 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink