Summer heat delays our trains

If you live in Germany, train delays are nothing new: only 60% of long-distance trains arrived on time last year. But in summer you may have to wait even longer. Europe's railways aren't built for extreme heat: trains lack air conditioning and the metal tracks expand or stretch, leaving operators to slow down or cancel trains. Across the eight European countries surveyed, heat piled on nearly 1,400 days' worth of extra delay between early May and early July this year. Of major rail hubs, the worst-hit was Berlin Hauptbahnhof, where trains ran around 15 minutes later on average once the temperature climbed past 30°C.