Andy Munns
SOUTH Western Railway (SWR) has confirmed its services on days of national industrial and strike action in December.
The ASLEF union, which represents train drivers, will take industrial action from Friday 1st to Saturday 9th December, with SWR drivers taking strike action on Wednesday, 6th December.
On Wednesday, 6 December, there will be an extremely limited service, with trains only running between London Waterloo and Basingstoke, Feltham, Woking, Guildford and between Basingstoke and Salisbury.
Trains will only operate on these routes between the hours of 0700 and 1900. There will be no other services on any lines, 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 trains on Wednesday, 6 December.
SWR customers are urged to only travel if absolutely necessary on Wednesday 6 December and to check their entire journey carefully if they must travel.
Unlike previous rounds of ASLEF industrial action, the union will be striking on different days for different train operators across the industrial action period.
Throughout the nine-day period, ASLEF has also instructed its members not to work any overtime, which will affect SWR from Friday, 1st to Tuesday 5th and from Thursday 7th to Saturday 9th December.
While SWR will be running a normal timetable on most of its network from Friday 1 to Tuesday 5 and on Thursday 7 December, there will be some cancellations. Customers are advised to check their full journey before travelling during these dates due to strike action occurring for other operators.
Customers can check now journey planners for these dates.
Service levels for Friday 8 and Saturday 9 December are being finalised and will be confirmed in due course, with journey planners for those days to be updated as soon as possible next week.
Stuart Meek, Chief Operating Officer for South Western Railway, said:
“We’re sorry that national industrial action will again impact SWR services for the first nine days of December.
“ASLEF will take strike action on Wednesday 6 December, meaning we will run an extremely limited service, and we must urge our customers to only travel if absolutely necessary on that day.
“During other days of industrial action, customers should check their entire journeys before setting off, as there will be some cancellations and drivers at other operators may be on strike.
“We know that this is a busy time of year as we approach Christmas, so we would like to thank customers for their continued patience and understanding.”
Industrial action, combined with ongoing engineering work between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction, means that it will not be possible to operate any services beyond Yeovil Junction.
Engineering work, which will finish on Sunday 10 December, means trains are already being diverted via Westbury with rail replacement bus services operating between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction.
With the ASLEF union overtime ban also coming into effect from Friday 1 to Saturday 9 December, it will not be possible to operate services beyond Yeovil Junction on Sunday 3.
Unfortunately, as with other dates of industrial action, it will not be able to provide rail replacement bus services for services that have been cancelled due to strike action.
Journey planners will be up to date on Saturday 2 December. Customers intending to travel on services towards Yeovil Junction on Sunday 3 should check before starting their journeys.
Customers who have purchased tickets for travel on Sunday 3 can use their tickets to travel between Friday 1 December and Tuesday 12 December, or claim a fee-free refund.
Customers are also reminded that from Sunday 10 December, SWR will begin operating a new timetable.
