South Western Railway (SWR) is urging customers to only travel if absolutely necessary from Tuesday 13th December to Sunday 18th December due to the planned national RMT industrial action.
This does not affect the Island Line Service, but will impact those travelling to and from the Island by train.
Expect severe disruption on strike days
Members of the RMT at Network Rail are set to take strike action on 13th, 14th, 16th, and 17th December, significantly limiting the rail infrastructure available to run services. More than 2,100 SWR members of the union will join the strike action.
Customers should expect severe disruption on strike days. Significant parts of the SWR network will be closed entirely and those trains that are running will be far less frequent and much busier compared to normal.
Knock-on effect
On Thursday 15th December and Sunday 18th December, the knock-on impact of the strike days means first trains will start much later than usual across the network and are likely to be very busy – customers are asked to avoid these if they can.
Reduced timetable
SWR’s reduced timetable will run from 07:15 to 18:30 on Tuesday 13th, Wednesday 14th, Friday 16th, and Saturday 17th December and will consist of:
- Four trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Windsor & Eton Riverside
- 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
- Two fast trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Southampton Central
Trains will not stop at all the stations on these routes. There will be no SWR services across the rest of the network.
No overtime rule
In addition, the RMT has announced that its members at SWR and other Train Operating Companies have been instructed not to book on for any overtime from Sunday 18th December to Monday 2nd January.
SWR will update customers once it has confirmed what service levels it can provide during this period from Sunday 18th December to Monday 2nd January.
Customers are urged to find the latest information on the SWR Website.
Image: citytransportinfo under CC BY 2.0
