Disruption to train services between Reading and London - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Because they have also to be handle below zero temperatures (more often until this year than 30-plus degrees.....

Few places in Europe get the spread of temperatures that we are now seeing....

The average winter temperature in the Thames Valley over the last 10 years has sat between 4-7 degrees, with a warming trend, and the summers have also been getting progressively warmer over the same period.

There have only been around 15 days in the last decade across most of the Thames Valley where the temperature has failed to rise above 0 degrees all day.

The narrative, as well as the infrastructure, needs to be a great deal more resilient in order to stand up to challenges.

[ChrisB]

But we aren't talking *average* temperatures...a couple of hours at below zero or above 30 degrees will damage unstressed rail.

As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.

[IndustryInsider]

More disruption, due to expected heat.

Due to forecasted severe weather between London Paddington and Reading fewer trains are able to run.
Impact: Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day on 09/07/26.
Customer Advice:
We are sorry for the disruption to your journey.
What has happened?
The high temperatures that are forecast for today can lead to an increase in points failures.
Points are the moving pieces of metal that enable trains to change tracks.

But Met office do not even think warm/hot weather even justifies a yellow warning, there are no warnings, no severe weather is forecast

https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2026-07-08

So why do team that update the headline disruption banner on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website think there will be severe weather when Met Office doesn't (or have they simply cut and paste wrong excuse)

There is however a Health heat warning (which doesn't affect points) risk factor 12, (medium risk, 60-89% probability of affecting those with poor health)

https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/weather-health-alerts/heat

Has someone misinterpreted a health warning as severe weather ?

Something doesn't add up here

I'm not sure what doesn't add up?  Ambient temperatures are above 30 degrees and track temperatures will also be high enough that Network Rail have imposed the KRS^▸ (Key Route Strategy) again.  The KRS means that one of the two OXF^▸ (Oxford station)<>PAD^▸ (Paddington (London) station) services per hour is cancelled and the PAD<>DID^▸ (Didcot Parkway station) services stay on the main lines between London and Reading and don't serve SLO/MAI^▸ (Maidenhead station)/TWY^▸ (Twyford station).

We're hardly talking massive changes and cancellations here.

This is to avoid the risk of severe disruption if the points at Dolphin Junction, and to a lesser extent at Stockley Bridge Junction, fail.

However, I would support a change in the wording to replace the phrase 'extreme weather' with 'high temperatures' which is the phrase used later in the explanation.

Expect this to happen whenever the temperature is over 30 degrees, so the remainder of this week.  My weather app is saying +33 in London today, +34 tomorrow and +31 Friday...and possibly into next week as well, though currently that is maxing out at +29.

[TaplowGreen]

But we aren't talking *average* temperatures...a couple of hours at below zero or above 30 degrees will damage unstressed rail.

As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.

I'm sorry but that simply isn't true - Italy for example has a wider spread in temperatures over the year as do a number of other European countries, it's nowhere near unique or "almost" unique to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), and certainly not Southern and Western England.

Perhaps we should look at good practice elsewhere.

This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.

[IndustryInsider]

But we aren't talking *average* temperatures...a couple of hours at below zero or above 30 degrees will damage unstressed rail.

As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.

I'm sorry but that simply isn't true - Italy for example has a wider spread in temperatures over the year as do a number of other European countries, it's nowhere near unique or "almost" unique to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), and certainly not Southern and Western England.

Perhaps we should look at good practice elsewhere.

This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.

Looks like Italy has its own problems!

https://help.raileurope.com/article/41616-italy-delays-disruptions#current

Lots of BBQ's there by the looks of it.

[ChrisB]

I'm sorry but that simply isn't true - Italy for example has a wider spread in temperatures over the year as do a number of other European countries, it's nowhere near unique or "almost" unique to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), and certainly not Southern and Western England.

data please - I think you'll find Italy (north) does experience colder weather than the south (quelle surprise), and they likely stress different areas to different temperatures.

Most of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) problems are in the Thames valley....plenty of serious frost pockets there that don't get above freezing on some winter days.

Perhaps we should look at good practice elsewhere.

This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.

No it's not "freak", agreed. But not happening often enough (yet) to actually make changes to maintenance schedules. I suspect that may come under GBR^▸ (Great British Railways).

[IndustryInsider]

No it's not "freak", agreed. But not happening often enough (yet) to actually make changes to maintenance schedules. I suspect that may come under GBR^▸ (Great British Railways).

And you would hope that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) will be replacing crossing with equipment with higher temperature tolerances to mitigate against future issues.  As we discussed, Dolphin Junction at the eastern end is up for replacement very soon.  I can't remember when it was last replaced, but you're typically looking at a 20-25 year life expectancy and the top ten warmest summers ever have all occurred since the turn of the millennium.

[TaplowGreen]

But we aren't talking *average* temperatures...a couple of hours at below zero or above 30 degrees will damage unstressed rail.

As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.

I'm sorry but that simply isn't true - Italy for example has a wider spread in temperatures over the year as do a number of other European countries, it's nowhere near unique or "almost" unique to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), and certainly not Southern and Western England.

Perhaps we should look at good practice elsewhere.

This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.

Looks like Italy has its own problems!

https://help.raileurope.com/article/41616-italy-delays-disruptions#current

Lots of BBQ's there by the looks of it.

Strikes? In Italy? Surely not! 

[Electric train]

But we aren't talking *average* temperatures...a couple of hours at below zero or above 30 degrees will damage unstressed rail.

As I said, the spread in *actual* temperatures is our almost unique problem. Ideally, we'd stress every spring & autumn.

I'm sorry but that simply isn't true - Italy for example has a wider spread in temperatures over the year as do a number of other European countries, it's nowhere near unique or "almost" unique to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), and certainly not Southern and Western England.

Perhaps we should look at good practice elsewhere.

This heat is not freak weather, it's been building for years, but we seem to have done very little to make the railway more resilient to it.

Network Rail I know are working on the impacts of climate change, I was involved in some of the working groups before I retired.  It is not as simple as the track engineers changing their standards, higher ballast shoulders for instance can burry other infrastructure (drainage, S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) and E&P cables) increasing the stressing of the rails could mean replacing the type of sleepers; track has a 30 plus in service life it is prohibitively expensive to just change things.  And sure stressing the rails for a higher ambient could cause problems in the winter