South Western Railway (SWR) is urging customers only to travel by rail if absolutely necessary between Thursday 18th and Sunday 21st August due to the planned industrial action (this does not apply to Island Line).
Customers should expect severe disruption on the network and, if they must travel on any of those days, should seek to do so by other means.
Severely reduced service
SWR has published its strike days service levels for Thursday 18th August and Saturday 20th August, which will provide a severely reduced service on the routes Network Rail has made available.
Significant parts of the network will be closed entirely and those trains that are running will be far less frequent and much busier compared to normal.
Only to travel if absolutely necessary
Due to the impact of the strike days, customers are also urged only to travel if absolutely necessary on Friday 19th and Sunday 21st August, when first trains will start much later than usual across the network and are likely to be very busy.
Network Rail will provide contingency cover for critical roles including electrical control room operators, signallers, maintenance, and response teams, but will not be able to cover the whole day.
Reduced timetable
SWR’s reduced timetable will run from 07:15 to 18:30 on the 18th and 20th August strike days, and will consist of:
- Two fast trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Southampton Central
- Two semi-fast trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Basingstoke
- Four trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Woking
- Four trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Windsor & Eton Riverside via Hounslow
Trains will not stop at all the stations on these routes. There will be no SWR services across the rest of the network.
Underground, Overground and buses
TfL Underground and Overground services will be affected by strikes all day on Friday 19th August, with some bus services disrupted on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th August. Connections with SWR services in London are likely to be impacted, or not run at all.
SWR will not be affected by the planned ASLEF strike action on Saturday 13th August, but some other train companies will be, so customers should check before they travel.
Williams: Please travel later in the day if you can
South Western Railway’s Commercial Director, Peter Williams, said,
“Please only travel if absolutely necessary between Thursday 18th and Sunday 21st August as strike action will severely impact our services. Those who must travel are urged to carefully check the times of first and last trains and seek alternative means of travel.
“The scale of the action will be incredibly disruptive for our customers with large parts of our network closed on strike days and a late start up on the morning after each strike day. First trains will run much later than usual and are likely to be very busy, so please travel later in the day if you can.
“We are sorry that strikes will again cause such disruption. We are grateful to our customers for their continued cooperation, patience, and understanding as the rail industry works to bring this damaging nationwide strike action to an end.”
Customers are urged to check the SWR website for latest information here.
News shared by Joseph on behalf of South Western Railway. Ed
