‘Don’t travel unless you have to’, Londoners warned with severe delays already

People trying to travel on London Underground were hit with disruption even before 8am this morning as the capital prepares for a potentially unprecedented heatwave.

There are ‘severe delays’ on five lines, while there is no service at all on the Hammersmith and City line due to ‘heat related speed restrictions’.

There are major delays on all or part of the Bakerloo, Central, District, Jubilee, and Metropolitan lines.

There are also delays on the new Elizabeth Line between Paddington and Heathrow Airport/Reading and between Liverpool Street and Shenfield.

Temperatures in London are not predicted to go above 30°C until after noon, but some services have already been reduced in anticipation of potentially record-breaking weather, with trains going more slowly.

The first ever ‘red warning’ for extreme heat has been issued by the Met Office, with temperatures of 40°C possible by tomorrow.

Londoners have been warned to only make essential journeys.

Andy Lord, the chief operating officer of Transport for London said: ‘Due to the exceptionally hot weather that is expected next week, customers should only use London’s transport network for essential journeys.

‘If customers do need to travel, they should check before they travel as we are expecting there to be some impact to Tube and rail services as a result of temporary speed restrictions we will need to introduce to keep everyone safe.’

Anyone who does travel is advised to wear cool clothes, take a handheld fan and ensure you have plenty of water.

Today, London is predicted to be hotter than Nassau in the Bahamas (32C), Kingston in Jamaica (33C), Malaga in Spain (28C), Athens in Greece (35C), Albufeira in Portugal (28C) and Dakhla, in the Western Sahara (24C).

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.