People are being told not to travel on trains on what is set to be the hottest day of the year.
Liverpool Lime Street station is warning rail users not to travel today due to the record breaking temperatures. It comes after Liverpool recorded its hottest ever day on Monday, with highs of 35 degrees.
Temperatures are forecast to reach the same levels on Tuesday as an amber weather warning remains in place for extreme heat. Network Rail has imposed speed restrictions in response to the extreme heat and Merseyrail's chief operating officer has confirmed the conditions will impact today's train schedule.
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Services on the Hunts Cross to Southport line will start and terminate at Liverpool South Parkway on Tuesday. Rail replacement buses are running between Hunts Cross and Liverpool South Parkway stations in both directions.
From Tuesday morning, there will be half-hourly services at Hillside, Hall Road, Hightown and Bank Hall on the Northern Line. On the Wirral Line, Chester services are not currently calling at Green Lane and Bromborough Rake stations. Ellesmere Port services will continue to call at both stations.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the UK's transport network cannot cope with the extreme heat, which puts train tracks in "severe danger" of buckling. He told BBC Breakfast: "We've seen a considerable amount of travel disruption.
"We're probably going to see the hottest day ever in the UK recorded today, and infrastructure, much of it built in Victorian times, just wasn't built to withstand this type of temperature - and it will be many years before we can replace infrastructure with the kind of infrastructure that could, because the temperatures are so extreme.
Asked if the transport system can cope with the weather, he said: "The simple answer at the moment is no.
"Where those tracks are 40 degrees in the air, on the ground that could be 50, 60, 70 and more, so you get a severe danger of tracks buckling. What we can't have is trains running over those and a terrible derailing.
"We've got to be very cautious and conscious of that, which is why there's reduced speeds on large parts of the network."
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