Morisot wrote:And it was all over the New York metro area news last week that this was the third coldest winter on the records for this area.
I'm not a meteorologist, but the average temperature over the course of the winter doesn't tell you all that much about whether or not the weather conditions contributed to the broken rails, just like how a students grade point average doesn't tell you anything about how well they did in Biology. What should be more telling is the minimum temperatures and the variation in temperatures, as that would likely put more stress on the rail than it just being cold outside (if anything, a lower average temperature would be more preferable, so long as it's consistent).
When you consider those figures, this winter wasn't all that exceptional. The low temperature was lower than the median historical low temperature for that day on only 19 of the 59 days in January and February, and most of those were towards the end of February, where the cold weather held on for a little longer than it typically does (and that is on the low side, especially when you consider that the definition of a median is that half of the values are lower than that). Record lows were only set in this area on four of the 59 days this winter, and all of those were at the very end of February.
Yes, it was cold, but it wasn't extremely cold, and the temperatures weren't shooting up and down from day to day. If the rails aren't designed to hold together in low temperatures that are above the median low temperature on over 70% of the days this winter, then they are very poorly designed. Otherwise, it has to be some sort of issue in the way they were installed...