Due to a rare red warning of extreme heat, GWR are warning customers to only travel if essential on Wednesday and Thursday (24th and 25th June).
Extreme heat can cause rails to expand and buckle, so when temperatures reach certain thresholds, trains must run more slowly to keep services safe. This will mean fewer trains and slightly longer journey times during the warmest periods of each day.
Prolonged high temperatures can also affect equipment on GWR’s older regional train fleet, including engines and cooling systems. As a result there may be some short-notice changes or cancellations, particularly during the hottest parts of the day. This applies to the trains used for TransWilts services.
Due to short notice changes, industry information systems will not show the correct train timetable until the day of travel.
To help customers, GWR will be easing ticket restrictions for those with tickets to travel on Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 June; tickets those days can be used on Tuesday 23 June and up to and including Friday 26 June.