UK: Heatwave forces trains to go slow

[John Ashworth]

Heatwave forces trains to go slow

Britain's heat wave has resulted in trains running slowly due to the risk of overhead wires overheating.

The Telegraph
By Murray Wardrop
11:17AM BST 27 Jun 2011

Today's high temperatures led to speed restrictions on a busy rail commuter route.

Speeds were reduced from 90mph to 80mph - and were later expected to go down to 60mph - on the London to Norwich Great Eastern line operated by the National Express East Anglia train company.

A Network Rail spokeswoman said: "We're already doing weekend work on overhead wires on this route and the wires can overheat in very hot weather.

"A speed restriction has been introduced and it may be lowered to 60mph in the hottest part of the day."

National Express East Anglia services were expected to be affected until 5pm today.

Between 12 noon and 5pm trains between London Liverpool Street station and Braintree in Essex will terminate at, and start from, Witham. A revised train service will run between Witham and Braintree.

Service alterations will be made on other East Anglia routes to and from Ipswich, Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester and Southend Victoria.

There was fears that temperatures on the London Underground could reach more than 40C - 13C hotter than the legal limit for cattle to travel.

A London Underground spokesman admitted passengers would need for up to four years for new air-con trains on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. Roll-out will not complete until 2016.

Bosses are also upgrading 13 ventilation shafts along the Victoria line, restoring 83 out-of-order ventilation fans across the network and has also installed portable fans.

The spokesman said: “The Tube is the oldest metro system and on deep-level lines, heat generated by trains has been passing into tunnels and clay surrounding them for many years, meaning tunnels retain heat.

“They were built with only enough room for trains and very little space for air-conditioning inside or outside trains.”

The Met Office said temperatures - the hottest for five years - were expected to peak at 33C between London and Cambridge in mid-afternoon, with 32C in the north but just 21C in Scotland.

But hospitals and social care organisations are on alert for a rash of heat-related deaths, with fears of a repeat of the August 2003 heatwave toll when deaths among Brits aged 75 and over rose by 60 per cent, with 2,000 extra deaths blamed on the weather.

The Level 2 Heat-Health warning issued by the Department of Health remains in place until Tuesday.

But Britain’s heatwave is expected to come to a dramatic end today with parts of the country lashed by thunderstorms, hail and even tornadoes.

However, forecasters warn that cooler air pushing in from the Atlantic is likely to cause thunderstorms and heavy downpours tonight, raising the risk of flash flooding.

Experts also claim the conditions could generate miniature tornadoes in parts of the south east, where the storms are expected to be most severe.

The Met Office last night issued severe weather warnings for a broad stretch along the east of England where up to 2in (50mm) of rain is expected to fall within just a few hours.

Some areas could also be pelted with large hail stones and strong winds, forecasters said.

Paul Michaelwhite, a forecaster for Netweather, said: "Conditions are likely to support organised and severe storms with large-sized hail, gusting winds, torrential rain and even tornadoes.

"People will have images of huge tornadoes in the USA, but we get smaller ones here – although they do can still cause damage, as we have seen in recent years.”

Mark Seltzer, a Met Office forecaster, added: “You need just the right conditions to spin them up, but the weather situation could support mini tornadoes.

“You need a lot of energy in the atmosphere and that’s exactly what we’ve got in the south east.

“As cooler weather comes in from the Atlantic and collides with all this hot air, we will see some severe thunderstorms and torrential downpours in places.”

Maximum temperatures predicted for today will see Britain bask in warmer weather than Barbados and Miami, where the mercury is expected to reach only 84F (29C).

But while the scorching conditions delighted thousands of beachgoers and Wimbledon spectators yesterday, festival goers claimed the heat made the quagmire at Glastonbury even worse.

Steve Jameson, 35, from Essex, said: "Everyone thought it was great when the sun came out – but it actually turned the mud thicker and people's wellies were getting stuck in the mud."

The hot spell – caused by a so-called Spanish plume of warm air rushing up from Iberia – will give way to cooler conditions for the rest of the week, once the storms have passed tomorrow morning.

The Met Office predicts mild temperatures and dry weather for most of the country with occasional scattered showers in northern areas throughout the week.