South Western Railway confirms strike day services in September and October

South Western Railway (SWR) has confirmed its services on days of industrial and strike action in September and October.

ASLEF union industrial and strike action will affect the SWR network on the following dates:

Friday 29 September – overtime ban
Saturday 30 September – strike action
Monday 2 October – overtime ban
Tuesday 3 October – overtime ban
Wednesday 4 October – strike action
Thursday 5 October – overtime ban
Friday 6 October – overtime ban

Journey planners for Friday 29 September will be up to date on Tuesday 26 September. Journey planners for Saturday 30 September are now up to date.

Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 October are expected to be up to date in journey planners on Wednesday 27 September. Thursday 5 and Friday 6 October will be updated in journey planners in due course.

On days of strike action, an extremely limited service will operate on a small number of lines and the majority of the network will be closed.

On Saturday 30 September trains will only run between London Waterloo and Basingstoke, Woking and Guildford via Woking. On Wednesday 4 October trains will only run between London Waterloo and Basingstoke, Feltham, Woking, Guildford via Woking and between Basingstoke and Salisbury.

On both dates trains will only run between the hours of 0700 and 1900. There will be no other services outside of these times.

There will be no service on the Island Line and customers in areas such as Bournemouth, Exeter, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton, Staines, Windsor and Yeovil will not be served by SWR services on these two dates.

Customers are advised to only travel if absolutely necessary. If customers must travel, they should check their entire journey before travelling, as other operators will also be affected.

On Friday 29 September and Monday 2, Tuesday 3, Thursday 5 and Friday 6 October, a normal weekday timetable will operate with a small number of cancellations. An hourly service will run on the Island Line.

Customers are advised to check before travelling on these dates and to check their entire journey as other operators will be affected.

Stuart Meek, South Western Railway’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “I’m sorry to say that, due to industrial and strike action by the ASLEF union over the next two weeks, we will be forced to make changes to our timetables. We will run an extremely limited service on both Saturday 30 September and Wednesday 4 October and our advice to customers is to only travel if their journeys are absolutely necessary. While we will run as many services as possible on days subject to overtime bans, our advice to customers is to check before travelling. On all seven dates of industrial action customers should check their entire journey before they travel as other operators will be affected. We’re very sorry for the disruption that this will cause and we’re very grateful to our customers for their continued patience.”

The article South Western Railway confirms strike day services in September and October first appeared in TravelDailyNews International.