According to a review by DN a total of 230 fires were caused by braking trains during the disastrous summer of 2018. After that, the Swedish Transport Administration promised to deploy more heat detectors around the country, which can warn of fires before they ignite.
But despite the Swedish Transport Administration’s measures, train brakes continue to cause large forest fires. According to Leif Sandahl, fire engineer at MSB (The Norwegian Agency for Community Safety and Preparedness), more than just detectors is required. He believes that the problem lies in the trains’ cast iron brakes.
– The trains brake in the same way as they did in the 19th century. Placing band-aids on the wounds and deploying a bunch of detectors won’t solve anything. You can never have so many detectors that you catch everything.
Superior brakes
But Bengt Olsson, press manager at the Swedish Transport Administration, believes that freight trains are simply too heavy to be braked in any other way. In addition, it is the only braking system that works in all weather conditions.
– Unfortunately, the old cast iron brakes are still superior to all other solutions. This means that there is always a risk of spark formation, he says.
No plans to stop trains
The reason why the trains pose such a great fire risk is that the brakes can shoot sparks for several kilometers in a stretch, and that the fires therefore become large and difficult to put out immediately.
If the fire risk is too high, for example, forestry must shut down its operations completely. Now MSB is warning of extreme fire risk, but according to Bengt Olsson, the Swedish Transport Administration is not considering shutting down any train tracks for preventive purposes.
– Our mission is, among other things, to ensure that there is transport that benefits Sweden and Swedish industry. If we stop completely, then Sweden stops. It takes a lot if we’re going to close, then it almost has to be on fire already.