Heatwave 22-27 June - effect on the UK Railway

[Wolfie]

It's definitely time to start painting trains white. A GBR livery that doesn't have a light colour on the roof and tops of bodysides would be incredibly short-sighted.

While l agree with respect to hot summers the rooves of diesel units will soon look disgusting and be dark enough that it doesn't matter.

 

[CR165022]

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

Dangerously unsafe. Half of the services cut, most with less carriages with usual.

 

[mm333]

A nice heatwave-related thing. I was ticking Chathill this evening. As the train from Newcastle came in, the man who lives in the old station house came out and passed the guard 2 or 3 soft cold drinks fresh from the fridge, I presume for him and the driver to share.

Edit: just been chatting to the guard on the southbound return journey. Sometimes the man in the station house gives them chocolate bars, but today is not - in any way - chocolate weather.

 

[Bald Rick]

Notable also there was substantial heavy rain and thunder across London in the middle of the night, something no forecasters mentioned at all yesterday.

It was in all the forecasts presented to us (on the rail network) for yesterday, and quite accurately, so no surprise here. I did forget to tell the wife though, so she wasn’t happy.

 

[Class 317]

GWR listing an amended timetable tomorrow but not in journey planners until tomorrow.

I need to make a longer journey using the north downs line to get from my normal worksite to cover a separate one.

Anyone have any idea of changes on Cotswold service and North Down line services?

 

[MarkWi72]

Dangerously unsafe. Half of the services cut, most with less carriages with usual.

Yes, I've just looked on Traksy and 1R54 is almost an hour late,; 1R53 33 minutes late.

 

[David57]

GWR listing an amended timetable tomorrow but not in journey planners until tomorrow.

I need to make a longer journey using the north downs line to get from my normal worksite to cover a separate one.

Anyone have any idea of changes on Cotswold service and North Down line services?

I was on the 11.52 1W02 from Paddington this lunchtime, stock late arriving (10 mins late, due to stock late off the depot), and lost time throughout, had to wait at Evesham as we had lost our path over the single line, and was cancelled beyond Gt. Malvern, arrived at Worcester Foregate St. 63 down. The Guard was very helpful, keeping people updated, the train was cool, aircon working, and not busy.

 

[OxtedL]

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.

I'm completely baffled by it, they normally at least leave something sporadic running, maybe ECS via Kings Cross

It's now an hour since they cleared the failed train, there is still nothing running and nothing scheduled to run on the moorgate lines, nothing at all via Hertford for 5 hours, yet the National Rail disruption message just references "delays of up to 45 minutes between Moorgate and Finsbury Park until 1900"

Feels like a problem with the fleet that isn't being communicated, or else a completely overwhelmed control.

 

[bramling]

I'm completely baffled by it, they normally at least leave something sporadic running, maybe ECS via Kings Cross

It's now an hour since they cleared the failed train, there is still nothing running and nothing scheduled to run on the moorgate lines, nothing at all via Hertford for 5 hours, yet the National Rail disruption message just references "delays of up to 45 minutes between Moorgate and Finsbury Park until 1900"

Feels like a problem with the fleet that isn't being communicated, or else a completely overwhelmed control.

Quite incredible not one single train out on the inners services, now over 5 hours since the issue arose.

 

[thenorthern]

This may seem a strange question but I assume that rails in the United Kingdom has a bigger problem with buckling in the hear than hot countries do as our infrastructure has to cope with a much greater temperature range than hotter countries do?

 

[mickey]

Most of the GWR branch lines appear to be out. Windsor, Marlow, Falmouth, Looe and Gunnislake all affected. Windsor is particularly unusual, it takes a lot to kill that off.

 

[Segedunum]

1615 Marylebone to Oxford today was absolutely horrendous. Full and standing on departure and the very weak AC was struggling. Only a three-car 165.

Meanwhile six carriages sat waiting to do a Wembley Stadium shuttle for Harry Styles. I know there's a balance to strike and you don't want overcrowding on a mass scale for an event, but a sensible compromise would have been having more peak services strengthened then having that stock ready for the concert kicking out (doesn't mean you have to run absolutely no additionals pre-concert of course) on its return to Marylebone.

I know it won't be as simple as that and it will have been done at very short notice (being someone who does the same thing for a living) but the end result for passengers has been extremely poor.

 

[choochoochoo]

Quite incredible not one single train out on the inners services, now over 5 hours since the issue arose.

Very strange indeed. Train moved ages ago. Units sitting in depots ready to go. Maybe the drivers are displaced ?

 

[deltic]

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?

travelling from London to Manchester - full but given its only 1 train out of three running its not to bad

 

[dk1]

So far the fabulous Stadler fleet here in the wonderful world of Greater Anglia have been nothing but a joy to travel on. Walk on sweltering & within seconds passengers are basking in a chilled relaxing environment.

 

[oversteer]

Any views on how LNR will be tomorrow? I should probably show up to work..

 

[168lover]

1615 Marylebone to Oxford today was absolutely horrendous. Full and standing on departure and the very weak AC was struggling. Only a three-car 165.

Meanwhile six carriages sat waiting to do a Wembley Stadium shuttle for Harry Styles. I know there's a balance to strike and you don't want overcrowding on a mass scale for an event, but a sensible compromise would have been having more peak services strengthened then having that stock ready for the concert kicking out (doesn't mean you have to run absolutely no additionals pre-concert of course) on its return to Marylebone.

I know it won't be as simple as that and it will have been done at very short notice (being someone who does the same thing for a living) but the end result for passengers has been extremely poor.

I was on the same train and it was so warm I began feeling proper unwell by High Wycombe

 

[Russel]

But what will it be like getting home again at say 1700-1800, by which time the extreme heat will really have taken effect?

It was deeply unpleasant.

So far the fabulous Stadler fleet here in the wonderful world of Greater Anglia have been nothing but a joy to travel on. Walk on sweltering & within seconds passengers are basking in a chilled relaxing environment.

How are the 720s coping? Up here the 730/2s air-con seems pretty terrible, I walked through the whole train, while cooler than outside, it was still uncomfortably warm, both ways.

 

[D1511]

I had a trip down on 9M50 this morning on 390138, and we were 1 early into Stafford, where I got off. Train was pleasantly cool, and the only incident was a sudden gush of water from a ceiling panel in coach H that dribbled on to a (fortunately empty) 4 seats and table. Air conditioning related apparently and not unusual either. Someone will no doubt tell us what causes it.

It was then held in Stafford due to a trespasser at Penkridge, so unusually I had to lug over to P5 for 1U14 LNR service to MKC. 730217 + AN Other. Other than being held behind 9M50 for a few minutes before a clever signalman decided to go around it, it also kept to time from Stafford and was pleasantly cool. Only notable thing was the train being rammed full of Harry Styles fans going to see him in London, so with the combination of his demographic and the extremely hot weather, there were very few clothes being worn......
Most of them had attire that head to toe totalled roughly the same amount of cloth as a table napkin.

 

[reduke]

Gotta say that I am incredibly annoyed (but obviously not surprised) at Thameslink this week.

I get that they cannot run their normal service, but cutting their services to reduce capacity by a combined 80% to Luton is just inexplicable.

I get that some stock may be stranded at Bedford, and that some drivers may not be able to roster on at the correct location, but these are not insurmountable problems.

It just smacks at the railway trying to achieve some or all of the following:
-enforced reduction in traffic to prevent them having to provide a sufficient level of rail replacements.
-not having to pay to run stock that they hope will be empty (guess what, it isn't!)

They didn't even have the basic common sense to make sure all remaining services stop at Luton airport parkway...

The knock on effect being that when seemingly inevitable heated related failures occur, standing around on a heated platform for hours becomes a seemingly acceptable way to get home...

 

[Mattplans]

I get that some stock may be stranded at Bedford, and

I was thinking about this earlier. Surely most of the stock needed to run a full timetable would've been out at the time of the incident anyway?

 

[londonmidland]

EMR are advising not to travel tomorrow and Thursday (24th-25th) due to extreme heat.

From their X:

#EMRUpdate: Red extreme heat warning in place Please do not travel Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 June.

More info here

 

[800301]

Most of the GWR branch lines appear to be out. Windsor, Marlow, Falmouth, Looe and Gunnislake all affected. Windsor is particularly unusual, it takes a lot to kill that off.

Along with the Bedwyn shuttle, All for the same thing, cab cooling, the saloons are fine, but the cabs really struggle to stay cool, the system fitted on the turbos was only designed for a maximum temperature of 30c, some are better than others but having driven the unit on the Windsors this morning, I knew it would be failed at some point, when I took over the Greenford this afternoon the London end cab was 33.4c and that was with the blinds being shut and the air cooling that had been on since the morning. At each end while waiting for departure I had the cab door open to soak up some of the saloon A/C which did drop the cab temperature a few C

 

[Russel]

EMR are advising not to travel tomorrow and Thursday (24th-25th) due to extreme heat.

More info here

I'd be interested to know what the TOC's are telling their own office staff after advising their customers not to travel, many of who will be travelling to and from work.

 

[Bald Rick]

I get that they cannot run their normal service, but cutting their services to reduce capacity by a combined 80% to Luton is just inexplicable.

Thats confusing frequency for capacity. Don’t forget that every train that starts at Luton to head south is empty.

I get that some stock may be stranded at Bedford, and that some drivers may not be able to roster on at the correct location, but these are not insurmountable problems.

The stock one is pretty insurmountable.

As for drivers, roughly half the Bedford services are resourced from Bedford, and now every Bedford driver will be on emergency diagrams that mean a taxi (or bus) to Luton. That makes the diagrams very inefficient, meaning they will be doing much less driving per shift.

Turnback capacity at Luton is also an issue.

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

I'd be interested to know what the TOC's are telling their own office staff after advising their customers not to travel, many of who will be travelling to and from work.

Many are saying WFH if you can. Clearly, many can’t.

 

[Haywain]

Thats confusing frequency for capacity. Don’t forget that every train that starts at Luton to head south is empty.

It's still around 56 coaches an hour less than normal. That's an awful lot of capacity and frequency to take out.

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

Turnback capacity at Luton is also an issue.

Really? In normal service 2 trains per hour turn round in one platform and there are two platforms that could be used, so a 4 tph service could operate. With nothing running north of Luton there's no risk of blocking other traffic.

 

[PP57601]

I had a journey back home from Sheffield on Saturday afternoon on a 170 where the aircon had failed, the staff apologised, and Saturday wasn't the hottest day in our area recently. Not improved by large numbers of extra passengers making for Doncaster because of the Bedford accident. Drank my 'emergency supply' of water, which I always keep at the bottom of my bag

As they say, ‘it’s grim up north’

 

[Bornin1980s]

GWR are advising on their website that a revised service will be in place on Wed 24 and Thur 25 June and that travel on these days should be for essential reasons only. Tickets for Wed and Thurs can be used any day between Monday and Friday this week.

They also point out that their older regional train fleet is more likely to be affected by the heat.

The older regional fleet? I thought it was the IETs that had engine cooling problems.

 

[duffield]

Cross country have canned the Cardiff part of Nottingham-Birmingham-Cardiff.
Link:

Travel Information | CrossCountry Trains

www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk

Quote:

Hot Weather Warning​

Services may be disrupted until Friday 26 June due to a weather warning in place across the UK. During this time we will not be serving Cardiff and there will be reduced frequency between Reading and Newcastle.

 

[800301]

The older regional fleet? I thought it was the IETs that had engine cooling problems.

Nothing to do with engines, although most of the IET traction package is overheating one way or another; it's more to do with cab cooling in the DMU fleet. While the engines do get hot, they typically just revert to idle for a bit and then start working as normal