Media centre

Wednesday 6 Aug 2003

PRECAUTIONARY HEAT RELATED SPEED RESTRICTIONS - UPDATE

Region & Route:

National

Network Rail will again today impose precautionary heat related speed restrictions across some of its network to ensure the delivery of a safe railway.   The speed restrictions to be imposed include:- Significant effect on services: 60 mph along the West Coast Main Line from Euston to Birmingham and Crewe (1100 onwards for Southern end (to Nuneaton) and 1230 onwards for Northern section) – extended journey times and service reductions.   Some effect on services: 90 mph along the East Coast Main Line from King’s Cross to just north of Peterborough (1200 till early evening). 90 mph along the Great Western Main Line from Paddington to Slough (1200 till early evening) and some 60 mph restrictions in and around Bristol.   Minimal effect on services: 60 mph across Southern England (1400 till early evening) – minimal effect due to nature of services and relatively low line speeds across much of the southern network, although extended journey times on the Portsmouth / Southampton routes should be expected. 60 mph on routes from Liverpool Street to Chelmsford and Norwich (1200 till early evening) – minimal effect due to relatively slow speeds on these routes.   During the hot weather track temperatures increase, often to a much higher level than the air temperature (52 degrees recorded near Guildford in mid-July), and there is potential for rails to buckle when the steel expands.   Peter Henderson, Projects and Engineering Director said: “Our first priority is always to run a safe railway.  We feel these precautionary speed restrictions are both sensible and necessary to guard against buckled rails. We expect similar restrictions to be in place for the next few days.”