London train delay advice: Yesterday's heatwave causing travel disruption on Thameslink, East Midlands, Great Northern Services and more

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Tom Herbert26 July 2019

Commuters are facing travel chaos this morning as the rail network struggles to cope with yesterday's extreme heat.

Temperatures reached a sweltering July record of 36.9C at Heathrow on Thursday, causing thousands of passengers to be left stranded at major stations in the afternoon.

Soaring temperatures led to fears that railways tracks could buckle in the heat if trains travelled too fast and overhead cables being damaged, causing speed restrictions, delays and cancellations to services.

Passengers have been told not to travel on the trains today as the heatwave hangover continues with Great Northern, Thameslink and East Midlands Trains seeing some of the worst of the disruption.

Customers have been advised to find alternative routes. Here's what to do if your service has been disrupted, according to Network Rail.

East Midlands

Damage to the overhead electric wires between Luton and St Pancras has meant East Midlands is running with a reduced service on an emergency timetable, causing severe disruption across the line.

The company has told passengers to avoid all travel on the St Pancras/Nottingham/Sheffield route today. If you must travel, you are advised to check live journey planners.

Tickets will be accepted for July 27 and ticket acceptance is in place with other lines. Find out more about the timetable here.

Grand Central

Services were disrupted, cancelled and delayed over damage to lines near Peterborough yesterday, leading to an amended timetable for today's services.

Yesterday's tickets will be accepted today and over the weekend.

Great Northern Railway

The company is running a heavily reduced service which will continue through to the afternoon, particularly on routes to and from Peterborough.

Services across the entire network remain heavily disrupted and GNR has arranged ticket acceptance on other routes. Find out more here.

Greater Anglia and Stansted Express

There was disruption to services between Liverpool Street and Broxbourne, via Tottenham Hale thanks to damaged overhead wires.

However services should have returned to normal by now. Follow updates here.

London North Eastern Railway

Damage to overhead wires at Peterborough has led to trains being cancelled and services amended this morning.

The timetable is expected to return to normal by 12pm. Follow updates here.

Trains to Blackfriars were being diverted to Victoria this morning because of ongoing disruption on the Thameslink route, however services seem to have returned to normal.

Follow updates here.

Thameslink

Thameslink has "strongly advised" that no customers travel today.

Network Rail has been unable to fix damage to overheard wires between St Pancras and St Albans and work will continue this evening.

Half of Thameslink's lines are not available as a result and further delays are occurring around West Hampstead.

Yesterday's tickets are being accepted and first class has been declassified for today.

A statement from the company says that services are delayed between Bedford and London.

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