SOUTH Western Railway (SWR) is extending its advice for customers to only travel if essential to Friday 26 June, as Britain's record-breaking extreme heatwave continues.  

In line with national travel advice, SWR now advises customers to only travel if essential on Wednesday 24, Thursday 25 and Friday 26 June. 

Like on Wednesday and Thursday, SWR will operate a reduced service on Friday, with fewer trains running on its network.  

Trains that run will likely be busier, and journeys will take longer than usual. Services will also finish earlier in the day than normal, affecting return journeys.

This includes trains and stations on the South Coast, with customers strongly urged to carefully consider the advice to only travel if essential.  

Due to the extreme heat, there may be some further short-notice service changes and cancellations.  

To help customers complete their journeys, temporary ticket acceptance is in place, allowing travel on alternative days.  

Service summaries and more details about ticket acceptance and alternative travel can be found on the SWR website here. 

If customers must travel, they should check journey planners and the SWR website for the latest updates, bring a bottle of water and not board a train if they are feeling unwell.  

Journey planners for are updated for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.   

Stuart Meek, Chief Operating Officer for South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex, said: 

"We’re sorry that we must extend our advice to only travel if essential to Friday, on top of the advice to only travel if essential on Wednesday and Thursday. 

“We are working hard to keep customers who need to travel moving, but the extreme temperatures mean we have to run a reduced timetable and there may be further short-notice changes. 

“While it might be tempting to head down to the beach to enjoy the sunshine, we strongly urge customers to heed our advice to avoid getting stranded.  

“I would also like to thank our customers for the support and understanding you are giving our colleagues as we respond to these challenging, record-breaking temperatures.”  

Extremely high temperatures have a significant impact on tracks, signals and trains. Rail temperatures can be up to 20 degrees hotter than the air temperature.  

To keep services running safely and as reliably as possible, trains operate at reduced speeds, and operators proactively reduce the number of trains on the railway network. 

More information about the impact of extremely high temperatures on the railway can be found here.