Heatwave 22-27 June - effect on the UK Railway

[The exile]

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.

What I find disappointing is that, while there have been plenty of announcements about tickets for Wednesday & Thursday being valid for travel on Friday, there is no information given about period ticket holders (be it season, rover or anything else) who are being told not to travel on 2 days that they have paid for. What should happen is a general announcement is that the validity of all such tickets for the Red warning area (at the very least) will be automatically extended for two days. No doubt that would be far too passenger friendly - we can’t have that.

 

[Jan Mayen]

I'll try and remember my season ticket is extended from 6th to 8th June next year....

 

[The exile]

I'll try and remember my season ticket is extended from 6th to 8th June next year....

Yes - a bit more difficult for annual tickets (as is remembering to claim those days once the ticket has expired!). Easy enough to say “take the ticket to any ticket office before the expiry date and it will be exchanged free of charge”.

 

[Haywain]

I'll try and remember my season ticket is extended from 6th to 8th June next year....

Many train operators will provide compensation for season tickets holder who are unable to travel, so it may be appropriate to make a claim in these circumstances.

 

[cats_five]

They could have just said that weather forecasting isn't an exact science - it would have been just as clear!

It isn't but those of us who are as geeky about weather as some are about railways want more than that.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Many train operators will provide compensation for season tickets holder who are unable to travel, so it may be appropriate to make a claim in these circumstances.

It's often done via Delay Repay - yes, really - it's the one case where it can be valid (depending on TOC) to claim DR when you did *not* travel.

 

[Deepgreen]

They really need to stop suggesting that travelling on Friday will be significantly better than Wednesday, given it is going to be *considerably* hotter on Friday along most of their route than it will be on Wednesday.

I appreciate they are probably following the Met Office who currently don't have *any* warnings in place for Friday, but the Met Office is lagging here and they need to pull up a forecast themselves.

eg. Here's the current Met Office forecast for Peterborough. I think Friday looks rather more problematic for travel issues than Wednesday (!). Admittedly the humidity is likely to be a bit less extreme by Friday but there will clearly be issues at 38C after a night with a low of 21C.

View attachment 206528
(Image shows weather forecast for Peterborough for next few days, with Friday the hottest day)

That forecast was wrong the moment it was issued - Friday was never going to be anything like that hot. Looks like they had transposed Wednesday's temperature with Friday's.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Jun 2026 ==

It isn't but those of us who are as geeky about weather as some are about railways want more than that.

Speaking...! Interesting that today's BBC forecast for the UK hotspot of Heathrow now shows 36C on Wednesday, when yesterday it was showing 40C! I suspect yesterday's huge and unexpected storm over Southern England has changed a few parameters to 'thwart' the extreme of 40C.

 

[MartinC]

You have to ask how it is that companies keep getting these basic things wrong!

Either way, my tickets bought on the forum site were all refunded by TrainSplit within a few minutes without any fuss!

TrainSplit also came up trumps for me, once I worked out how to just do it as a straight refund and not a credit which is what I was expecting. Off topic but even more to thanks to Tate Britain who altered our exhibition tickets in a 20 second phone call !

 

[Hophead]

The advice is constantly changing. Earlier, Southern also said to travel on Friday if you didn't want to go out Wednesday / Thursday, but that's now disappeared. They are however now offering a full refund (though this was beyond the capabilities of the ticket office). I'll see if that can be done online without a fee. GWR are sticking to travel on Friday if you like, but not offering refunds.

As one or two others have stated above, consistent and clear advice across the affected area really shouldn't be too much to ask for.

 

[Haywain]

That forecast was wrong the moment it was issued - Friday was never going to be anything like that hot. Looks like they had transposed Wednesday's temperature with Friday's.

That is similar to other forecasts I've seen - I'm due to be in Nottingham on Friday and temperature there is forecast to be in the 30s.

 

[SteveHFC]

The forecasts I've seen today are all showing Friday as being as hot, if not hotter, than Wednesday and Thursday. A change from what the forecasts were showing yesterday.

 

[Dave61]

The forecasts I've seen today are all showing Friday as being as hot, if not hotter, than Wednesday and Thursday. A change from what the forecasts were showing yesterday.

I think the only truly accurate forcast is a summary of yesterday, but they do their best to be as accurate as possible

 

[bramling]

I’ve lost track of what’s going on now! Is the general consensus now that Thursday and Friday are going to be the hotter days in the London area?

 

[Jammyhall]

My friend is onboard 2F38 stuck just outside of Drayton park on the NCL, they've been stuck there for a while, air con was working at first but has stopped since. Passengers getting irate after being trapped in the heat for so long and have begun to open the doors themselves.

 

[SteveHFC]

Latest forecasts for London:

Met Office
Wed 35c
Thu 33c
Fri 36c
Sat 32c

BBC
Wed 35c
Thu 32c
Fri 34c
Sat 31c

 

[Jammyhall]

My friend is onboard 2F38 stuck just outside of Drayton park on the NCL, they've been stuck there for a while, air con was working at first but has stopped since. Passengers getting irate after being trapped in the heat for so long and have begun to open the doors themselves.

They've begun to get folks off and walk all the passengers back to Drayton Park.

 

[WillC]

Research on my soon-to-be-canned trip to France suggests the sleepers are being cancelled as the rolling stock is old and the aircon has a limit of 34C. The idea of being marooned in a sleeping car without aircon is fairly troubling, they are hot anyway. But I won't find out for sure until tomorrow at 17:00 when they make the call. Realistically though they could make it now - 40/41C expected in Paris on Thurs afternoon, and typical for France the heat often persists into the first part of the night as winds continue to bring hot air up form the south. Oh well...

 

[168lover]

Just been on a very toasty trip to London from High Wycombe. The do not travel warnings seems to have not had much effect as the few trains that were running were overcrowded and dangerously warm. Not having a train going north from Marylebone in almost an hour then the next train only being 3 coaches is just plain stupid

 

[styles]

I just had a hilariously unpleasant journey on the Borders Railway. The guard came down and unlocked the windows but I'd argue it actually made it worse while w3e were stood still.

 

[OuterDistant]

I've just had a short trip on a 170 in lieu of cycling.

Air conditioned and in almost complete safety - for all the railway staff reading this, thank you for the work you're doing today

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Salford Crescent has apparently had some sort of track circuit failure (that's just what I overhead from a member of staff) and so everything is running late.
Currently on a 150 running 30 minutes late with the back carriage locked out, effectively 1 carriage for 12 since the Leeds-Wigan services are all cancelled.

 

[mq90]

Did York to Wakefield Westgate via Leeds this morning on TPE and LNER without a single issue. Return journey around half three was fine on a Bradford Forster Square-bound Azuma, although had to hop in a Newcastle bound XC at Leeds where you can imagine what it was like (but the Northern to York was looking very unsafe so it was the best bet in the end).

 

[OxtedL]

They've begun to get folks off and walk all the passengers back to Drayton Park.

A somewhat unusual secondary response from Great Northern here with all 717s sent to sidings and nothing running at all via Hertford.

 

[Class 466]

Salford Crescent has apparently had some sort of track circuit failure (that's just what I overhead from a member of staff) and so everything is running late.
Currently on a 150 running 30 minutes late with the back carriage locked out, effectively 1 carriage for 12 since the Leeds-Wigan services are all cancelled.

The Track Circuit Failure occured only about half an hour after the Airport Line reopened following the incident at Gatley. Then a second one at Entwhistle (albeit far less disruptive)

 

[Cell2025]

Currently coming up on midday, 28C here in inner London, where the forecasters were announcing Amber Danger, which has been taken to heart by many, excuse for train cancellations, etc - and some school closures too.

Notable also there was substantial heavy rain and thunder across London in the middle of the night, something no forecasters mentioned at all yesterday. This must be embarrassing for them, so there was no mention of this having happened at all in this morning's weather reports. 35mm of rain, that's 1.3 inches in old measure, it's apparently already the overall 13th wettest day since a detailed central London weather station started recording nearly 20 years ago! I'm surprised rail services were not disrupted by flooding as well.

The Met Office did an hour long live stream yesterday in relation to the heat and potential storms were mentioned, but details were sketchy. As it is the heat and humidity was enough to bust through the atmospheric cap and explode. Truly exceptional and impressive all at once.

 

[Howardh]

Watching Manchester - Euston with interest. Yes there have been scheduled cancellations - but looking right now those that did travel look to arrive/been arriving almost on time! If the cancellations mean those that run are reliable, then all good - as long as those trains aren't packed!

How are LNW managing from Crewe?

 

[MarkWi72]

Any idea about the Chiltern Line? How's it been today?

 

[pastut]

post 229 gives a hint, dreading upcoming travel on it

 

[rmHawk765]

Southeastern's saunas metro stock have produced this fantastic meme however:

This makes me feel very grateful I no longer have to deal with 313s...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Jun 2026 ==

A somewhat unusual secondary response from Great Northern here with all 717s sent to sidings and nothing running at all via Hertford.

Unusual? This is standard for GTR...
Thank christ I am not going anywhere today. I must admit I have never seen them do something as outrageous as this.

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Yet another OHLE failure between Hitchin & Cambridge, I can no longer count the figures for this year.

 

[MarkWi72]

post 229 gives a hint, dreading upcoming travel on it

Ah, just saw that, missed it earlier. Interesting.