“The forecast temperatures are well above those which our infrastructure is designed, and safety must come first.”
“Closing the line to traffic is always a last resort but it is the right thing to do to keep people safe on Tuesday given the unprecedented heatwave forecast,” Sam MacDougall, the operations director for Network Rail, said in a statement. It also closed the entire East Coast Main Line, which runs between London’s King’s Cross Station and York and Leeds, for Tuesday afternoon. In a statement, the company warned of delays, cancellations, and last-minute changes to train services on Monday and Tuesday. Steel rails expand when heated and can push against adjacent pieces of track, which can also damage equipment that detects where trains are to keep them a safe distance apart, according to Network Rail, which owns and repairs the railway infrastructure in England, Scotland and Wales. National rail services were also bracing for disruptions to thousands of miles of steel tracks, which absorb heat easily and can buckle, causing serious delays. In London, where some of the most extreme temperatures are expected - Tuesday’s forecast predicts a high of 103 degrees Fahrenheit - a number of tube lines had service suspended on Monday and Tuesday, according to a statement from Transport for London, which operates the network. “But what can we do with the infrastructure that we have in England,” he added.
“In England, we have no idea how to deal with this kind of heat.” While he said he was worried about potential delays to the national rail service that would take him home, he hoped that leaving before the temperatures rose too steeply would spare him any issues. “Our flat is hot, outside it’s hot, it’s all a bit much,” he said.