Services were expected to return to normal later in the day after two days of speed restrictions and main line closures, but damage including broken overhead wires and fires that spread to the tracks were still halting many services on Wednesday morning . The East Coast Main Line remained closed between London and Peterborough after a fire on Tuesday night, suspending LNER services from King’s Cross and Thameslink and Great Northern services north of the capital. Trains around Birmingham New Street were severely disrupted due to extensive damage to overhead power lines, with Avanti West Coast and West Midlands trains forced to divert onto alternative routes. Some services from London Euston have been canceled and others delayed following the fires in north-west London on Tuesday. Fewer East Midlands long distance services were running as repairs continued on the Midlands Main Line. The damage also affected some North, TransPennine, CrossCountry and Transport for Wales services. National Rail’s official branch website told customers to check before starting journeys and continued to urge people to travel only if necessary, despite the huge amount of work completed overnight. “Network Rail teams continue to work tirelessly to carry out the repairs so we can get services back up and running for passengers, but there is still disruption to services throughout the day,” it said. Meanwhile, Network Rail has announced the launch of an independent task force to shape how the railway can be made more heat-resistant. The taskforce will look at how other railways around the world deal with extreme heat and temperature fluctuations and will consider issues such as the changing climate, how infrastructure can operate safely and how best to manage operations and passenger care in future heatwaves. Subscribe to the Business Today daily email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter @BusinessDesk Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, said: “The weather we have experienced this week has put enormous pressure on our infrastructure, our staff and our passengers and with extreme weather events becoming more frequent as our climate continues . to change, we must pull out all the stops to make our railway as resilient as possible.” The four experts on the panel are former Met Office chief scientist Julia Slingo. former HS2 chairman Doug Oakervee; former Australian Railways chief executive Simon Lane, who ran trains in hot climates; and Transport Focus watchdog chief executive Anthony Smith.
