Heatwave 22-27 June - effect on the UK Railway

[Howardh]

So far I can't see any daytime cancellations on Avanti (Manchester to London) for Thursday - probably too early yet and as Weds is expected to be well over 30c that should give some idea of delays and cancellations. Looks like with their ticket acceptance for advances I will have to turn up and hope!

Seriously thinking of cancelling this outbound leg and going National Express instead will see how Wednesday goes.

 

[Hophead]

At what point do we think Advance tickets booked for tomorrow/Weds/Thursday on any TOC will be made refundable?

I have XC tickets to an event in Southampton for tomorrow and SWR tickets from Southampton to Waterloo on Wednesday, but so far neither has officially issued a 'Do Not Travel' yet so technically can't get a refund.

However, my plan to get back home from London on Wednesday will involve Chiltern, who *have* declared 'Do not travel', but for which I don't yet have a ticket (wasn't sure what time I'd be travelling).

Currently torn as to whether give up going to the event (and lose the hotel, event and potentially train ticket costs), but at least not end up a melted puddle on the floor!

I have a similar problem (though no event is involved). Advances to GWR-land, booked on Southern with connections on them, Thameslink, Tube & Lizzie. If GWR say you can travel later in the week, will the tickets be accepted on connections? Will Southern refund me if GWR advise against travel, but they don't have the same advice on their own trains? Some sort of joined-up railway would be nice.

 

[D1537]

At what point do we think Advance tickets booked for tomorrow/Weds/Thursday on any TOC will be made refundable?

LNER and Avanti ones already have been. Have any other TOCs?

 

[Russel]

LNWR Are advising essential travel only until the end of the day on Thursday, as of yet I've not received instruction not to go into the office, so it'll be interesting to see how many people are still traveling tomorrow and Thursday.

 

[CyrusWuff]

I have a similar problem (though no event is involved). Advances to GWR-land, booked on Southern with connections on them, Thameslink, Tube & Lizzie. If GWR say you can travel later in the week, will the tickets be accepted on connections?

If TfL treat it the same as when TOCs have industrial action and tickets are accepted on days either side, you'll need to buy a new ticket or use Pay As You Go for the LU/DLR/Elizabeth Line leg if travelling on a different day. Thameslink should be okay as they're a normal TOC.

 

[david l]

On Northern's Journey Check all XX12 Leeds to Manchester Victoria plus the return and XX42 Leeds to Chester plus the return have been cancelled for Tuesday 23 June : all 195s . For now the 158 Leeds to Wigan services remain along with the 195 York to Blackpool . The reason given for the cancellations is a short notice change to the timetable. It is warm in the Calder Valley, forecast to be hotter tomorrow but not sure if it warrants advance widespread cancellations on this scale throughout ...eg early morning or evening when it is cooler ? Northern cancelling in advance due to a pre advised short notice change to the timetable, so a get out of jail card for compensation for anyone attempting to travel and unaware of these changes ??? At midday in Hebden Bridge tomorrow it is forecast to be 26 degrees (Met Office) ...is this now deemed too hot for a 195 to venture out ?

And all the Southport-Manchester Ox Road services have been taken out tomorrow - mind you its forecast max of 28 degrees round here. Must be a coincidence that these are mainly worked by 769's (when they work, but no air-con to fail.......) but yet the 3 services per hour to Man Vic have been left in, but taking out the 1 per hour to the 'south' side. Easy options taken again, sod the passenger.

 

[Hophead]

If TfL treat it the same as when TOCs have industrial action and tickets are accepted on days either side, you'll need to buy a new ticket or use Pay As You Go for the LU/DLR/Elizabeth Line leg if travelling on a different day. Thameslink should be okay as they're a normal TOC.

Thanks for the reassurance - a TfL fare is easily manageable. I'm hoping for (but frankly not fully expecting) clear & comprehensive guidance on alternative arrangements.

 

[markle]

Whilst I understand the risks of being stranded in the event of an infrastructure failure, I can't help but wonder if telling people to not travel and work from their (likely un-airconditioned) home will have worse health impacts than people travelling in to their (likely airconditioned) workplaces.

It will certainly have a productivity impact - there's a clear correlation with high temperatures in a working environment.

 

[Timmyd]

Services halved on the ‘Mildmay’ Line according to NR site, which seems a bit dramatic. And not going to help passenger welfarr

 

[Howardh]

Any news on the plans for Gatwick Express?

 

[bramling]

Whilst I understand the risks of being stranded in the event of an infrastructure failure, I can't help but wonder if telling people to not travel and work from their (likely un-airconditioned) home will have worse health impacts than people travelling in to their (likely airconditioned) workplaces.

It will certainly have a productivity impact - there's a clear correlation with high temperatures in a working environment.

For businesses it’s not really the best idea. People should have little difficulty getting to work, and as you say many will then be working in air-conditioned office space. It will be interesting to see what the beaches are like on the two days.

 

[Bikeman78]

Much of central continental Europe has a similarly wide temperature band to cope with. What they haven’t had (yet) is that much high-speed rail.

Quite. I remember many trips to Belgium in the summer holidays to ride on M2 or M4 stock hauled by 1950s electric locos, which couldn't care less about the heat. Unlike me! It must have been 40 degrees inside the stock after simmering all day. I couldn't do it now. Conversely, it's been well below zero on some of my winter trips.

 

[Sonic1234]

Will Southern refund me if GWR advise against travel, but they don't have the same advice on their own trains? Some sort of joined-up railway would be nice.

If any part of your journey has a "Do Not Travel" message, or is cancelled, or disrupted, your ticket is refundable even if the connections run OK.

It's one benefit of having a through ticket for your whole journey, or tickets which join up (not leaving a gap crossing London where you use contactless).

 

[Silver Cobra]

Prior to the Met Office issuing the red weather warning I was planning a trip down to Hastings for Thursday. Now with the warning in place I'm abandoning that plan (even if 'essential travel only' hadn't been declared already by Thameslink). Getting caught up in the disruption during the 37°C+ day back in July 2019 (on a heavily-loaded IC225 with struggling air-con in this case) was not a fun experience at all, so I don't fancy possibly having a repeat of that.

I have to travel for work on Wednesday, so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out. Thank goodness my work travel only involves a 5-minute hop between two nearby stations.

 

[MikeWM]

Part of the problem with saying 'travel on Friday instead' is that Friday is increasingly likely looking to be the hottest day of this tedious heatwave in the eastern half of England. For example, the latest Met Office model run has maxes here at 33C tomorrow, 31C Wednesday, 35C Thursday, 39C Friday (with 40C in Norfolk/Suffolk!), and indeed still 33C on Saturday. The Met Office hasn't issued any warnings beyond Thursday *yet* but they will be certainly be doing so if anything like those forecasts are generated closer to the time. Wednesday looks a far more sensible time to travel to say Newcastle than Friday (21C vs 33C on this latest forecast!).

 

[Wolfie]

Services halved on the ‘Mildmay’ Line according to NR site, which seems a bit dramatic. And not going to help passenger welfarr

Strange because TfL do not say that on their website and the Mildmay was running when.l.went through Canonbury station to get the Windrush line about 30 minutes ago.

There are apparently "bespoke" services on the Mildmay and Windrush today though according to the PIS so likely to be similar until at least Friday l imagine.

 

[Benjwri]

Strange because TfL do not say that on their website and the Mildmay was running when.l.went through Canonbury station to get the Windrush line about 30 minutes ago.

There are apparently "bespoke" services on the Mildmay and Windrush today though according to the PIS so likely to be similar until at least Friday l imagine.

Today was unaltered apart from some minor disruption. It’s from tomorrow it is planned to be halved, but is not in journey planners yet.

 

[Hophead]

If any part of your journey has a "Do Not Travel" message, or is cancelled, or disrupted, your ticket is refundable even if the connections run OK.

It's one benefit of having a through ticket for your whole journey, or tickets which join up (not leaving a gap crossing London where you use contactless).

Thanks for the info. I see that GWR has joined the "only travel if absolutely necessary" list, as well as allowing travel on Friday instead (trains are going to be busy that day!). If Southern can be contacted, I'll see if they're amenable to a refund.

 

[Wolfie]

Today was unaltered apart from some minor disruption. It’s from tomorrow it is planned to be halved, but is not in journey planners yet.

TY. The PSIs said 22 Jun, lol

 

[Silver Cobra]

Part of the problem with saying 'travel on Friday instead' is that Friday is increasingly likely looking to be the hottest day of this tedious heatwave in the eastern half of England. For example, the latest Met Office model run has maxes here at 33C tomorrow, 31C Wednesday, 35C Thursday, 39C Friday (with 40C in Norfolk/Suffolk!), and indeed still 33C on Saturday. The Met Office hasn't issued any warnings beyond Thursday *yet* but they will be certainly be doing so if anything like those forecasts are generated closer to the time. Wednesday looks a far more sensible time to travel to say Newcastle than Friday (21C vs 33C on this latest forecast!).

It's very interesting to see that Norfolk/Suffolk are getting the 38°C+ temps on Friday. The Home Counties and Greater London are expected to drop back down to 34°C by then (still very hot, but not as problematic). So I can envisage Greater Anglia setting up their 'essential travel only' notices for Friday, and also maybe Great Northern for the Kings Lynn route.

 

[mickey]

Does Maidenhead East junction have the same points issues as Dolphin? I’ve not heard of it there before, unlike the latter which has been common for years, so naturally wondering why they don’t keep Twyford and Maidenhead before routing onto the fast line from there.

 

[Bikeman78]

It seems the UK is experiencing a typical Australian summer. For the railways that means between 10am and 8pm the dreaded heat speed restrictions and it depends on the temperature as to how slow they are. If its over 36 degrees C it means 80kph max speed and if its over 40 degrees C its 40 kph max speed. This can add hours to journeys and there are full temporary heat timetables to account for the significant increase in journey times.

I would assume the UK has a similar heat timetable situation with special timetables for lines effected by extreme heat?

One has to hope the air-conditioning on the train is working well on days like that. Air-conditioning failure normally results in the train terminate at next station and passengers to transfer to following service or buses are called in for rest of journey!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Jun 2026 ==


Thats one way to deal with aircon failure. Given the back up windows are open I would assume the aircon is not working! Had that experience many times before and it usually resulted in being booted off the train at next station to wait for road coaches. Thus you end up sitting on a regional station trying to keep cool while its pushing 47 degrees C and the wind feels like a blast furnace!

It's a Networker. There is no air con. I went on one on Friday from Tonbridge to Sevenoaks. I was expecting it to be awful but actually it wasn't too bad. Plenty of air flow through the windows at 70 mph and those nozzles under the luggage racks blast out a fair bit of air. I suspect the white rooves help too. Most trains have darker rooves which absorb heat.

 

[Benjwri]

Does Maidenhead East junction have the same points issues as Dolphin? I’ve not heard of it there before, unlike the latter which has been common for years, so naturally wondering why they don’t keep Twyford and Maidenhead before routing onto the fast line from there.

Any points have a risk of failing in the heat especially at high speeds. The risk is likely judged to be too high to risk the entire GWML catastrophically failing.

 

[Class 466]

Northern now have close to 400 cancellations for tomorrow predominantly around the North West. Nothing on my line although it fell to pieces earlier once the speed restriction around Dinting kicked in (and if nothing else goes wrong - that’ll be repeated every day this week)

 

[NSEWonderer]

SWR has a few service reductions and may no doubt have a speed restriction around Wimbledon again from 7am to 7pm which previously happened a month ago when it was hot

 

[markle]

SWR has a few service reductions and may no doubt have a speed restriction around Wimbledon again from 7am to 7pm which previously happened a month ago when it was hot

From a passenger view the cancellations don't follow an easy clockface pattern. E.g. one in four Shepperton services cancelled, one in five Windsor etc.

Presumably they've just removed a certain number of diagrams and this is the consequence.

 

[GordonT]

Whilst I understand the risks of being stranded in the event of an infrastructure failure, I can't help but wonder if telling people to not travel and work from their (likely un-airconditioned) home will have worse health impacts than people travelling in to their (likely airconditioned) workplaces.

Some might argue that we have become a mollycoddled society and invoking the line of least resistance of working from home is part of this culture even on occasions when it doesn't necessarily make sense.

 

[NSEWonderer]

From a passenger view the cancellations don't follow an easy clockface pattern. E.g. one in four Shepperton services cancelled, one in five Windsor etc.

Presumably they've just removed a certain number of diagrams and this is the consequence.

Yes it would be done on diagrams rather than individual services as the trains would be out of place on the latter. I'd assume part of it is to have spares as well, incase especially with diesel stock the need for a spare crops up. Infrastructure also should cope better with lesser trains if rail heat is substantial.

 

[David Bullock]

Some might argue that we have become a mollycoddled society and invoking the line of least resistance of working from home is part of this culture even on occasions when it doesn't necessarily make sense.

It’s avoiding the risk of full, stranded trains with no a/c and limited water.

Working from home isn’t an option for lots of people and I do think it is daft to suggest.

Again this is all about money and government - in the long term gvt will either have to pay to improve infrastructure to cope with the climate or pay indirectly for the loss of productive time as a result of climate related disruption. Not to mention additional costs for a railway that needs repairing more often because of climate damage, and any health problems caused by people being stranded on hot trains.

I think it has less to do with being mollycoddled, and more to do with being a fudge where government don’t have to take any responsibility (and pick up the bill) for these problems.

 

[bramling]

Some might argue that we have become a mollycoddled society and invoking the line of least resistance of working from home is part of this culture even on occasions when it doesn't necessarily make sense.

Unfortunately there’s a segment of society that is constantly on the lookout for any reason to work at home. It’s one of many unfortunate legacies left over from Covid.