EXCLUSIVE

By Neil Millard

neil.millard@essnmedia.co.uk

Rails on the tram network have had to be realigned to cope with the summer's hot weather.

Transport for London blames the network's previous owners Tramtrack for not maintaining the steel rails properly.

In the past hot weather has seen stresses on expanding track forcing trams to obey temporary speed restrictions, reducing the capacity of the network.

But now a "tamping" machine has "re-calibrated" the rails to cope with the higher temperatures of the summer so speed restrictions will no longer be necessary.

The most affected areas in the past have been around Sandilands, between Arena and Birkbeck, and around Addington Village.

Work in these areas started a fortnight ago.

Over the last 10 days around 100 workers and two tamping machines have fixed six kilometres of track and put down 500 tonnes of ballast.

A TfL spokesman said: "A lot of rails including the tram network in Croydon are set to be at their optimum at 18 degrees Celsius.

"When hot weather comes along the rails tend to buckle and get out of kilter slightly.

"The previous owners of the track basically ignored this.

"They didn't realign the rails so in the hot months of the summer there would be quite a few points through the route where the trams would have to slow right down to five to 10 miles per hour."

The steel tracks expand and contract as they got hotter and colder. This affects off-street sections of track more and tram drivers report in whenever they experience a rough ride.

A temporary speed restriction is then put in place so other drivers can stop safely if they see a problem with track ahead, and avoid derailments.

Engineers then realign the track by lifting and moving it sideways and compacting the stones around the sleepers.

Similar work will continue for the next two months so the trams can cope with the full range of temperatures experienced in Croydon.