Hot weather is forecast in England and Wales until at least Saturday 27 June; please only travel if absolutely necessary on 24 and 25 June 

Route(s) affected

Various routes across the National Rail network

Description

The Met Office are advising that heatwave conditions are forecast for parts of England and Wales with temperatures expected to remain high until at least Saturday 27 June.

The hot weather is set to be widespread over England and Wales, and highs of up to 38°C are possible in some areas this week. There are red and amber weather warnings in place for extreme heat covering parts of England and Wales until Thursday 25 June.

If you are travelling on Wednesday 24 or Thursday 25 June to, from or within the red weather warning zone, please only travel if absolutely necessary.

If you are travelling on Tuesday 23 June or Friday 26 June, please check before you travel.

The red weather warning zone can be found on the Met Office website. This may change throughout the week so please do check it and the Journey Planner before making any decisions on travel.

A visual disruption map video is available.

Alterations, easements and advice:

If you hold a ticket for travel on Tuesday 23 June, Wednesday 24 June or Thursday 25 June, you can use it instead to travel on Friday 26 June. This will be at no extra cost to you and you will not need to change your ticket.

You can also use your ticket to travel earlier in the day on 23, 24 and 25 June - we recommend doing so before 12:00 midday when the temperatures are likely to be slightly cooler. You'll need to keep within the restrictions of your ticket - for example, if you hold an off-peak ticket, please travel only on earlier off-peak trains. If you hold an advance ticket for a specific train operator, you can use this on earlier services with the same operator.

If you decide not to travel on 23, 24 or 25 June, you can claim a full refund with no admin fee charged. You can apply for a refund via the retailer you originally purchased your ticket from.

Please find below some specific information from train operators. This includes planned alterations, current service disruptions, ticket easements and advice:

• Avanti West Coast

• c2c

• Chiltern Railways

• CrossCountry

• East Midlands Railway

• Elizabeth line

• Gatwick Express

• Great Northern

• Greater Anglia

• Great Western Railway

• London Northwestern Railway

• London Overground

• LNER

• Merseyrail

• Northern

• Southeastern

• Southern

• South Western Railway

• Stansted Express

• Thameslink

• TransPennine Express

• Transport for Wales

• West Midlands Railway

The following train operators are currently operating a normal timetable with no planned alterations due to the weather. However, please check before you travel in case of any short notice alterations and in case of any non-weather related disruptions:

• Grand Central

• Heathrow Express

• Hull Trains

• Lumo

• ScotRail

For an overview of all live disruptions, please visit Status and Disruptions or live departure boards on the National Rail website.

Information about how hot weather affects the railway:

Hot weather may cause trains to be disrupted. Heat can cause overhead lines to expand and sag, line-side fires and also cause rails to buckle.

The high humidity may also lead to possible thunderstorms in some areas.

Speed restrictions may be in place which can cause delays and cancellations.

Please carry water with you - you can find water refill stations at all Network Rail managed stations and some other larger stations.

We advise waiting for your train in the shade or a station waiting room where possible.

Additionally, if you feel unwell at the station, please don't board a train, please seek assistance from station staff or use the help point.

Further information can be found on our hot weather page.

Check before you travel:

The National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner is constantly being updated with the latest timetables and alterations. As such, the Journey Planner might not be showing the planned level of service for your particular journey. Please use the above train operator advice pages to check the status of the Journey Planner.

Compensation:

You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.