Rail passengers travelling from London Marylebone are being urged to only travel if essential on Thursday as soaring temperatures force train operators to cut services.
Chiltern Railways has warned of disruption due to extreme heat, with forecasts predicting temperatures of up to 38C on parts of its network.
A reduced timetable will be in place between 11am and 8pm.
Michael Stewart, commercial and customer strategy director at Chiltern Railways, said: "We are asking customers to travel only if essential on Thursday because of the exceptionally high temperatures forecast across our network.
"By operating a reduced timetable during the hottest part of the day, we can provide a more reliable and comfortable service for customers."
Off-peak services between London Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street will be reduced to one train per hour, down from the usual half-hourly service.
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Some services between London Marylebone and Oxford will be cancelled, and there will be no Chiltern Railways services running from Birmingham Snow Hill from 10.15am until the end of the day.
The disruption is part of a wider impact on the UK rail network.
East Midlands Railway (EMR) and Northern have also advised passengers to travel only if essential.
Heat-related problems expected to affect the railway include buckled rails, sagging overhead electric wires, and lineside fires.
Steel rails can reach temperatures of more than 50C when the air temperature is just 30C.
Some ticket restrictions have been eased, and passengers are being asked to check for travel updates before starting their journeys and to carry water to stay hydrated.
Other operators are running reduced timetables or warning of possible short-notice cancellations.
EMR said trains between Nottingham and Worksop, and on the Nottingham to Leicester regional stopping route, will not run after midday on Thursday.
The Liverpool Lime Street to Norwich route will operate only between Sheffield and Norwich.
Northern has said it will run fewer trains than normal on some routes in the North West and Yorkshire on Thursday because of extreme heat.
The operator told passengers: "High temperatures increase the risk of issues on the railway and with the reliability of our trains, which means we have to make adjustments to our usual timetable to keep trains running."
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