The Picture That Shows Why Our Trains Are Running Slowly In The Heatwave

27 June 2018, 08:06

Network Rail published this photo to show how Britain's rails are struggling to cope with the heatwave.

Commuters faced severe delays last night - especially from Waterloo - with trains given speed restrictions due to the sunny weather.

This picture shows train lines near Glasgow, which buckled in the heat, which reached 30 degrees in parts of the UK.

Simon Calder, the Travel Editor for the Independent, ridiculed the fact that our railways can't cope with the hot weather.

He told Nick Ferrari: "At Waterloo, from 11am onwards, it's going to get very sticky indeed. It's too hot to run trains at normal speed.

"Across in Uzbekistan, they are laughing at us. At the only high-speed line in central Asia, from Tashkent to Samarkand, it's already 33 there, so a lot hotter than it is in Winnersh Triangle, and that's still going.

"In Saudi Arabia, they are building a new 190mph line from Mecca to Medina and that has rather warmer temperatures than New Malden as well."

On the disruption out of London Waterloo, South West Trains said: "With exceptionally warm weather this week, and track temperatures expected to reach 47 degrees Celsius in many locations, Network Rail has advised that emergency speed restrictions are required. 

"The primary location of these speed restrictions is between London Waterloo and New Malden on lines heading away from London Waterloo, resulting in service alterations and cancellations.

"These speed restrictions, which vary between 20mph and 40mph, will affect all country bound lines each day from 11:00 until Friday 29/06.  These will cause all trains heading away from London Waterloo to lose up to 10 minutes before reaching New Malden station. As trains will take longer to pass through these sections, trains may be held at signals for longer. "