Association between the Rail Breakage Frequency in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei High-Speed Railway and the Eurasian Atmospheric Circulation Anomaly
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper entitled ‘Higher frequency of rail breakage in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei high-speed railway caused by intensified Siberian high’ tells an interesting story about how climatic background effecting the rail breakage in BTH region. This is a bold interdisciplinary research attempt, and shows important implications in the security of railway transportation. I think this work is suitable for publication after some minor revisions.
My comments are as follows.
L16-18. This sentence needs to be rewritten.
L65. ‘The BTH region is in the China capital economic circle’.
L65-70. This paragraph should be in the front of the Introduction section.
L71-89. Is AO a part of the East Asian winter monsoon system? Why do this paper focus on the Siberian high eventually? The logic of this paragraph needs to be carefully rearranged.
L85-86. The source of the FRB data?
Figure 1. The units of the FRB are missing.
Figure 2. In 2b, the percentage of the FRB is over 60% in each area. However, it becomes 2-17% for every year. It is a bit confusing.
L167-168. This sentence repeats the previous one.
Author Response
Reviewer 1:
The paper entitled ‘Higher frequency of rail breakage in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei high-speed railway caused by intensified Siberian high’ tells an interesting story about how climatic background effecting the rail breakage in BTH region. This is a bold interdisciplinary research attempt, and shows important implications in the security of railway transportation. I think this work is suitable for publication after some minor revisions.
Response: We appreciate your positive comments and constructive suggestions on our manuscript. We have revised our manuscript by seriously taking your comments into account to improve the manuscript as possible as we can. Please see the detailed responses as follows.
My comments are as follows.
L16-18. This sentence needs to be rewritten.
Response: Modified (Line 18-20).
L65. ‘The BTH region is in the China capital economic circle’.
Response: Modified (Line 36).
L65-70. This paragraph should be in the front of the Introduction section.
Response: Modified (Line 36-41).
L71-89. Is AO a part of the East Asian winter monsoon system? Why do this paper focus on the Siberian high eventually? The logic of this paragraph needs to be carefully rearranged.
Response: The Arctic Oscillation (AO) is not a part of the East Asian winter monsoon system. But there are connections between them (Gong et al., 2001; Wu and Wang, 2002).
This paragraph provides a comprehensive review of the various factors that can impact winter temperature anomalies in China. One of the most significant factors is AO, which has a strong influence on winter temperatures in China. However, it is important to note that other factors, such as the Eurasian teleconnection, Ural blocking, and Circumglobal teleconnection patterns, can also contribute to the variation in winter temperatures (Line 80-87). Therefore, by considering the complex interactions among these factors, we can gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the observed winter temperature anomalies in China through this paragraph. And we have done our best to rearranged this paragraph.
Gong DY, Wang SW, Zhu JH. East Asian winter monsoon and Arctic oscillation. Geophysical Research Letters. 2001 May 15;28(10):2073-6.
Wu B, Wang J. Winter Arctic oscillation, Siberian high and East Asian winter monsoon. Geophysical research letters. 2002 Oct;29(19):3-1.
L85-86. The source of the FRB data?
Response: As the FRB data is considered confidential, we are unable to disclose the source of the data. However, we have declared in the "Data availability statement" section that “The monthly FRB in high-speed railway of BTH region could be obtained through the corresponding author for reasonable request.” (Line 276-277). We understand the importance of data transparency and are committed to providing access to the data to qualified researchers who require it for their studies.
Figure 1. The units of the FRB are missing.
Response: The rail breakage frequency indicates the frequency of rail breakage incidents on the high-speed railway. Therefore, we think that there is no need to provide a specific unit in the article. However, we have provided a brief explanation in “Data and methods” section (Line 105-106).
Figure 2. In 2b, the percentage of the FRB is over 60% in each area. However, it becomes 2-17% for every year. It is a bit confusing.
Response: Firstly, we should apologize for confusing you. In figure 2b, the percentage is the FRB in winter against the FRB of whole year in BTH region for the climatology (average from 2010 to 2020). In the figure 2c, the percentage is winter FRB in whole BTH region of each year. The sum of the percentages for each year is 100%.
L167-168. This sentence repeats the previous one.
Response: Thank you for your suggestion. We have rewritten this paragraph (Line 174-183).
Reviewer 2 Report
This work studies the variations in the frequency of rail breakage (FRB) in the high-speed railway of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region and its relationship with atmospheric circulation. It was revealed that the increasing winter FRB in BTH region and the intensified Siberian high are related. This work is interesting. However, there are several serious issues need to be adressed. I think at least major revisions are needed. First, the authors didn't give a comprehensive review of the previous studies. The circulation pattern inducing the wintertime cold surge and extreme precipitation is not on the surface. There are many circulation patterns, i.e., Eurasian teleconnection, Ural blocking, and Circumglobal teleconnection patterns. Second, the title does not make sense. From this paper and many previous studies, an intensified Siberian high is a cocurrent phenomena. Third, on the data of surface temperature and precipitation. The authors need to use station data (not the reanalysis data).
Author Response
Reviewer 2:
This work studies the variations in the frequency of rail breakage (FRB) in the high-speed railway of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region and its relationship with atmospheric circulation. It was revealed that the increasing winter FRB in BTH region and the intensified Siberian high are related. This work is interesting. However, there are several serious issues need to be adressed. I think at least major revisions are needed. First, the authors didn't give a comprehensive review of the previous studies. The circulation pattern inducing the wintertime cold surge and extreme precipitation is not on the surface. There are many circulation patterns, i.e., Eurasian teleconnection, Ural blocking, and Circumglobal teleconnection patterns. Second, the title does not make sense. From this paper and many previous studies, an intensified Siberian high is a cocurrent phenomena. Third, on the data of surface temperature and precipitation. The authors need to use station data (not the reanalysis data).
Response: Thank you for providing us with your valuable comments on our manuscript. We have taken your suggestions into consideration and have made the necessary revisions. Specifically, in response to your suggestion, we have conducted a review of the existing literature on atmospheric teleconnection and Ural blocking, which are known to have an impact on winter temperature anomalies in China. The relevant findings from this review have been added to the manuscript, and can be found in the section from Line 80-87.
We would like to express our gratitude for your helpful suggestion to change the title to "Association between the rail breakage frequency in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei high-speed railway and the Eurasian atmospheric circulation anomaly," which we have implemented.
We would also like to address your concerns regarding the use of reanalysis data in our study. While we acknowledge that reanalysis data may not be as accurate as observation data, we would like to emphasize that surface temperature data from CN05.1 was obtained by interpolating observations from the 2400 station in China, as noted by Wu and Gao (2013). We have also conducted a comparison of the spatial distribution of surface temperature correlation coefficients between FRB and observations (Figure R1a) and reanalysis data (Figure 3b or Figure R1b) in China, and found that the results are consistent. Based on this, we have decided to retain Figure 3b in the manuscript.
(Figure R1 can be seen in the attachment.)
Figure R1. (a) Spatial distribution of correlation coefficients between ISH and CN05.1 surface temperature in winter. (b) is same as in (a), but for ERA5 2m temperature field. The solid magenta line denotes the zero line. The shaded area/dot shading is the area that passes the 90%/95% significance test. Green curve indicates the BTH region.
Wu Jia, Gao Xuejie, 2013: A gridded daily observation dataset over China region and comparison with the other datasets. Chinese Journal of Geophysics, 56(4): 1102–1111, doi:10.6038g20130406 (in Chinese with English abstract).
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Please refer to attached pdf file.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Reviewer 3:
The submitted manuscript is interesting, dealing with the topic of the relationship between the weather anomaly and the increased number of rail fractures on HSR lines. The structure of the work is correct, the literature is also appropriately selected in terms of quantity, quality and subject matter, but it should be supplemented with selected works. The language of the work is very good, although in places there are short passages difficult to interprete.
Response: We appreciate your positive comments and constructive suggestions on our manuscript. We have revised our manuscript by seriously taking your comments into account to improve the manuscript as possible as we can. Please see the detailed responses as follows.
While I appreciate the work and the original contribution of the Authors to find and describe the above relationship, I am forced to recommend a major review because of a fundamental error that undermines both the adopted research method and the statistical apparatus used, which consequently leads to a disruption in the correct formulation of conclusions 1 and 2. This error is the adoption of only a simple dependence of the number of rail cracks on low temperature. Meanwhile, other factors that affect the number of rail cracks include, but are not limited to:
- The sum of track length in a given subregion (Chengde, Tianjin, Baoding,…)
- Age and hardness of the rails,
- Maximum vehicle axle load,
- Total load on the rail line [millions of tons/year],
- The occurrence of subgrade vibration isolation,
- Type of superstructure (ballasted track / slab track),
- Objects like bridges and tunnels (especially tunnels have a big impact because inside them there is a stable temperature, practically regardless of the season),
- The value of the neutral temperature assumed in the CWR design and that actually prevailing during rail jointing.
None of the factors mentioned above are mentioned in the manuscript. The absolute minimum to draw correct conclusions is to relate the number of cracks to the total length of rail track in a given subregion or recalculate number of cracks per 100 km of track or of rails (not of HSR, because we have single, double and multiple tracking on the lines).
Response: We appreciate your insightful comments. As you noted, there are numerous factors that can impact the frequency of rail breakage (FRB), including those we listed in our study. Unfortunately, obtaining high-speed railway data is often challenging due to confidentiality or limited sample sizes. In response to the reviewer's comments, we attempted to access these data, but were only able to obtain longer time series of FRB data for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Given these limitations, we have emphasized in the abstract that our study focuses on investigating the relationship between FRB and atmospheric circulation and temperature (Line 15-17). We have also addressed the issue of other non-meteorological factors that can influence FRB in the discussion section of the manuscript (Line 258-268).
Figures 1 and 2, posted below, are intended to illustrate an allegation regarding the omission of the length of railroads in the area: there is only one HSR (red) near Chengde, running almost entirely in tunnels (light red), meanwhile, there are many HSRs near Beijing and almost no tunnels. Scale of both Figures is the same.
Fig. 1 Railway map of Chengde area (Openrailway map)
Fig. 2 Railway map of Beijing area (southeastern part) (Openrailway map)
Notwithstanding the above, I request that some corrections be made and doubts clarified before publication. A list of detailed corrections and comments can be found below.
Response: Thank you for the helpful figure on the length of railway railroads in parts of the BTH region. We agree that the distribution of railway railroads is uneven in the region. However, in climatological studies, it is common to use a regional average of a variable as an index to characterize that variable for the entire region. In our study, we followed this approach to analyze the frequency of rail breakage (FRB) across the whole BTH region and its relationship with meteorological variables. Although investigating the spatial and temporal patterns of FRB in individual cities and their associated meteorological factors is interesting, it requires more detailed data which we were unable to obtain for this study. We have acknowledged this limitation in our discussion section (Line 282-285) and will consider it for future research if such data become available.
Line 14 spatio (unnecessary capital letter)
Response: Modified (Line 15).
Line 44 in case of HSR, only specific trainsets are equipped with locomotives. Most trains are EMU (Electric Multiple Units) with distributed traction, as in case of CR400AF train in Figure 3, where passenger compartment is clearly visible in all cars, as opposed to CR200J trains with distinct locomotives at both ends (no passenger compartments) in Figure 4.
Fig. 3 CR400AF trainset, from wikipedia.org
Fig. 4 CR200J trainset, from wikipedia.org
In conclusion, most HS trains don’t have a locomotive. Suggested way of correcting the sentence ‘…repeatedly exerted axle loads’.
Response: Thank you for bringing to our attention the need to improve our description. We have revised the sentence to read, "The rails are exposed to the elements for extended periods of time and can break due to repeated axle loads" (Line 51-52).
Line 100 – 110 and 115 – 120: explanation should at least name the factors mentioned and listed above. It also makes Conclusion 1 and 2 sounding false and based only on partial assumptions.
Response: We acknowledge your comment regarding the lack of explanation for the factors listed above in the third section of the article. As detailed data on the high-speed railway railroads is limited, we are unable to provide a more thorough explanation. However, we have included relevant discussions on this topic in the Discussion section (Line 275-285).
General issue – quoting of References in text does not comply with Journal’s standard, Reference list is written in few different formats (full names, initials, differen order) and must be standarised.
Response: Modified.
At last, thank you again for your constructive comments on our manuscript.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
I am pleased to recommend its publication.
Author Response
Thank you for your appreciation of our study!
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear Authors,
thank you for the detailed and polite response with in-depth explanation. This time, only few minor mistakes spotted:
Line 55: Xiao et al., [space] 2017
Line 267: studying. [space] The
Line 270, 271: Reddy and Ciotlaus references in different font size
Line 273: it is also important
Author Response
Dear Authors,
thank you for the detailed and polite response with in-depth explanation.
Response: Thank you for your appreciation of our study.
This time, only few minor mistakes spotted:
Line 55: Xiao et al., [space] 2017
Response: We have reformatted all of the reference citations in accordance with the journal's template.
Line 267: studying. [space] The
Response: Modified.
Line 270, 271: Reddy and Ciotlaus references in different font size
Response: We have reformatted all of the reference citations in accordance with the journal's template.
Line 273: it is also important
Response: Modified.
