Britain’s ageing rail network has buckled in the heat, stranding commuters and triggering a wave of ridicule on social media. The Mailhas the story:
As Britain endures a second day of searing temperatures, train companies have come under fire for blaming “severe weather” for cancelling services – with announcements declaring it is “too hot to go on”.
As millions packed onto sweltering Tubes, buses and trains on Tuesday morning following the record-breaking Bank Holiday weekend, further misery awaited as train operators axed services due to the “severe weather”.
A number of services were cancelled due to the heat, while on Monday passengers were forced off a train in Oxfordshire owing to a faulty air conditioning system.
A video from one of the affected carriages shows passengers asking “what’s going on?” as they were told they would need to disembark before reaching their destinations.
Images showed commuters stranded on the platform at Surbiton station in Surrey on Tuesday morning after South Western Railway (SWR) cancelled services due to the heat.
National Rail said the railway network could be hampered by the “unusually warm” temperatures, noting that excessive heat can cause overhead power lines to sag and rails to buckle – not to mention the risk of trackside wildfires.
Sagging power lines risk being damaged if trains run at full speed. Many newer lines feature ‘auto-tension’ systems capable of pulling cables back into place, but older routes lack such equipment, forcing trains to slow down.
SWR said services on its network may be cancelled or delayed by up to 30 minutes for the remainder of Tuesday, affecting routes running from London Waterloo into parts of Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset.
Elizabeth line services in the capital have also been slowed due to “high track temperatures”; some services running from London Liverpool Street to Gidea Park were cancelled on Tuesday afternoon owing to the additional congestion caused by the speed restrictions.
The decision to scrap services due to the heat drew derision from passengers on social media. One wrote: “Services cancelled because of hot weather? How do they manage to run trains in Spain? Clown country.”
The heatwave has prompted calls for Labour to introduce a fixed maximum temperature at which workers would be permitted to down tools – a measure Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds has said she will “carefully consider”. …
The chaos comes as teen mobs have threatened a fresh wave of violent ‘linkups’ across the country after disorder erupted in Brighton, Hackney and Clapham on Bank Holiday Monday. Fights also broke out on Seaham beach in Durham and in Southend, Essex, where police were filmed arresting a teenager.
Bournemouth beach is covered in rubbish after the bank holiday weekend
Images of Bournemouth beach on Tuesday morning showed mounds of litter left on the sand by Bank Holiday revellers. Despite 300 bins lining the seafront, virtually all were overflowing with rubbish, with bin bags piled up on the pavement beside them. One environmentalist partly blamed the ‘social media generation’ for assuming that somebody else would clear up after them.
“Staff should call their boss to request a sick day, says work…
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15 Comments
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JohnCaldigate
3 months ago
I traveled from Euston to Manchester last night. We were fortunate inasmuch as our train wasn’t canceled but that was as far as our luck went.
The train departed about 45 minutes late and arrived almost two hours late.
Conditions on board were shocking. Crowded train, temperature in the carriage in the high 20s. Aircon not working so hundreds of us were in sweltering heat for getting on for 4 hours.
I understand that the appalling state of the infrastructure, signal failures, speed restrictions etc are beyond Avanti’s control but their failure to adequately maintain their trains is appalling. It was so hot it was almost certainly illegal and dangerous.
Avanti staff were outstanding, courteous, friendly and did all they could to help whilst their bosses hide in air conditioned luxury and pocket their bonuses.
Peter W
3 months ago
“Severe weather ” ?! WTF
Pathetic!
“One environmentalist partly blamed the ‘social media generation’ for assuming that somebody else would clear up after them…”. Well, duh of corse “they” will clair up my mes. “They” do evrythink for me – is my rite.
CircusSpot
4 months ago
It is classic railway behaviour. The lines are closed or rundown at weekends and BH and many of their staff will fancy extra days off this week due to the good weather and pull a sickie.
Even on a normal week the majority of SW Train services are 10 mins late getting to their destination from Mon to Thurs.
At weekends you have a 50% chance of your train running at all let alone to your destination with enough carriages to be seated.
No wonder folk just hire a taxi or get a coach.
Gezza England
4 months ago
So the recently built Crossrail has ignored all the scary warnings of extreme heat over the last 2 decades during the design phase and not allowed for it?
EppingBlogger
4 months ago
Are councils not paid whatever they demand as Council Tax to provide services. Emptying bins and other public health services must be principal ones. Councils near seaside resorts also have responsibilities for beaches and promenades.
Time is long overdue when all public authorities should check what they were created for and get on with it to the exclusion of all else.
As to state run and regulated services not being ready for a couple of days of warmer weather, have they not kept up to date with Milibands alarmism.
Councils have had additional legally required tasks forced upon them by all the lovely Leftwaffe lawyers, it would require legislation to change this again. I don’t know how to do that given the current political situation in Britain.
Cotfordtags
4 months ago
I don’t know, all this anthropological climate change causing all these problems. Dreadful, I tell you, dreadful. Makes you wonder what caused previous record hot April days, only a few degrees cooler, in 1949 and in June 1957 when it hit 36 degrees. Someone is yanking our chains
Another temperature record i heard mentioned had stood since the 1920s. Must have been caused by outbreak of mass Charleston dancing.
stewart
4 months ago
How do they manage in the Middle East I wonder. Or in southern Europe. Or in the southern US states. Or in Soith East Asia. Or in East Asia. Or in Southern Asia. Or in Central Asia.
Have I mentioned before that Britain is a ridiculous country?
Railway track in the UK covers a range of temperature that is actually greater than many other countries, the expansion coefficient of steel is such that it is not possible to make the expansion joints work over the full range without adjustment.
The result is to reduce speed for critical sections and also inevitably increase the headway (time between trains) which reduces capacity.
I’m pretty sure the rail networks in Spain, France and Japan, which include high speed rail, continue working normally within a range of temperatures that is at least as wide as in the UK.
In any case, if for some reason UK rail lines are somehow inferior to those of such global economic powerhouses such as Spain or Italy or France, then the explanation is surely not “extreme weather” but rather “extremely deficient rail lines”.
Maybe someone with more knowledge will explain further, but I have seen the explanation I gave in several places.
Of course, we are pretty bad at investment in public infrastructure so it could be a lag in replacement of the parts of the railway that are easiest to fix such as the auto-tensioners for overhead wiring but to be fair I remember seeing the large weights used to tension wiring since the 1970s and they work by gravity.
Apparently British railway tracks are pre-stressed for a median temperature of 27°C, in summer rails can reach 20°C above ambient and the critical temperature is 46°C so stress is becoming problematic then. Rails do not get colder than ambient in winter.
It is possible to improve the situation by painting rails white but that doesn’t work on the running surface and is not possible everywhere.
I’m thinking that places like Spain, France and Italy are generally further south and do not experience temperatures at the lower end of the range often and thus the pre-stressing is done for high median temperatures.
I am not a railway engineer, it’s almost certainly more complicated than my description. This happens regularly, I’m sure it would… Read more »
England does not enjoy a continental climate with fiercely hot summers and bitingly cold winters, so it is not like russia or kansas to name but two who seem to manage to run trains year round, albeit mostly freight, ie what trains are actuallly for.
My guess is penny pinching in the specifications, and typically useless senior management.
The crew on my Avanti train last night were diplomatic but it was clear cost-cutting is rampant and contributes to poor maintenance and failures on non-critical systems like aircon. As for the tracks, high temperatures are just like leaves on the line or wrong kind of snow.
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I traveled from Euston to Manchester last night. We were fortunate inasmuch as our train wasn’t canceled but that was as far as our luck went.
The train departed about 45 minutes late and arrived almost two hours late.
Conditions on board were shocking. Crowded train, temperature in the carriage in the high 20s. Aircon not working so hundreds of us were in sweltering heat for getting on for 4 hours.
I understand that the appalling state of the infrastructure, signal failures, speed restrictions etc are beyond Avanti’s control but their failure to adequately maintain their trains is appalling. It was so hot it was almost certainly illegal and dangerous.
Avanti staff were outstanding, courteous, friendly and did all they could to help whilst their bosses hide in air conditioned luxury and pocket their bonuses.
“Severe weather ” ?! WTF
Pathetic!
“One environmentalist partly blamed the ‘social media generation’ for assuming that somebody else would clear up after them…”. Well, duh of corse “they” will clair up my mes. “They” do evrythink for me – is my rite.
It is classic railway behaviour. The lines are closed or rundown at weekends and BH and many of their staff will fancy extra days off this week due to the good weather and pull a sickie.
Even on a normal week the majority of SW Train services are 10 mins late getting to their destination from Mon to Thurs.
At weekends you have a 50% chance of your train running at all let alone to your destination with enough carriages to be seated.
No wonder folk just hire a taxi or get a coach.
So the recently built Crossrail has ignored all the scary warnings of extreme heat over the last 2 decades during the design phase and not allowed for it?
Are councils not paid whatever they demand as Council Tax to provide services. Emptying bins and other public health services must be principal ones. Councils near seaside resorts also have responsibilities for beaches and promenades.
Time is long overdue when all public authorities should check what they were created for and get on with it to the exclusion of all else.
As to state run and regulated services not being ready for a couple of days of warmer weather, have they not kept up to date with Milibands alarmism.
Councils have had additional legally required tasks forced upon them by all the lovely Leftwaffe lawyers, it would require legislation to change this again. I don’t know how to do that given the current political situation in Britain.
I don’t know, all this anthropological climate change causing all these problems. Dreadful, I tell you, dreadful. Makes you wonder what caused previous record hot April days, only a few degrees cooler, in 1949 and in June 1957 when it hit 36 degrees. Someone is yanking our chains
Another temperature record i heard mentioned had stood since the 1920s. Must have been caused by outbreak of mass Charleston dancing.
How do they manage in the Middle East I wonder. Or in southern Europe. Or in the southern US states. Or in Soith East Asia. Or in East Asia. Or in Southern Asia. Or in Central Asia.
Have I mentioned before that Britain is a ridiculous country?
It certainly is now.
Railway track in the UK covers a range of temperature that is actually greater than many other countries, the expansion coefficient of steel is such that it is not possible to make the expansion joints work over the full range without adjustment.
The result is to reduce speed for critical sections and also inevitably increase the headway (time between trains) which reduces capacity.
I’m pretty sure the rail networks in Spain, France and Japan, which include high speed rail, continue working normally within a range of temperatures that is at least as wide as in the UK.
In any case, if for some reason UK rail lines are somehow inferior to those of such global economic powerhouses such as Spain or Italy or France, then the explanation is surely not “extreme weather” but rather “extremely deficient rail lines”.
Maybe someone with more knowledge will explain further, but I have seen the explanation I gave in several places.
Of course, we are pretty bad at investment in public infrastructure so it could be a lag in replacement of the parts of the railway that are easiest to fix such as the auto-tensioners for overhead wiring but to be fair I remember seeing the large weights used to tension wiring since the 1970s and they work by gravity.
Apparently British railway tracks are pre-stressed for a median temperature of 27°C, in summer rails can reach 20°C above ambient and the critical temperature is 46°C so stress is becoming problematic then. Rails do not get colder than ambient in winter.
It is possible to improve the situation by painting rails white but that doesn’t work on the running surface and is not possible everywhere.
I’m thinking that places like Spain, France and Italy are generally further south and do not experience temperatures at the lower end of the range often and thus the pre-stressing is done for high median temperatures.
I am not a railway engineer, it’s almost certainly more complicated than my description. This happens regularly, I’m sure it would… Read more »
England does not enjoy a continental climate with fiercely hot summers and bitingly cold winters, so it is not like russia or kansas to name but two who seem to manage to run trains year round, albeit mostly freight, ie what trains are actuallly for.
My guess is penny pinching in the specifications, and typically useless senior management.
The crew on my Avanti train last night were diplomatic but it was clear cost-cutting is rampant and contributes to poor maintenance and failures on non-critical systems like aircon. As for the tracks, high temperatures are just like leaves on the line or wrong kind of snow.