SOUTH Western Railway (SWR) has laid out its services during the latest planned industrial action by the RMT and ASLEF unions which begins on Saturday, July 29.
Strike action will affect services for the week leading up to Saturday, August 5, and further strikes between Monday, August 7, and Saturday, August 12 will be confirmed in due course.
This Saturday, large parts of the SWR network will be closed and trains will only run between the hours of 7am-7pm, with the last trains departing most services at around 5pm.
This excludes the Island Line, which is expected to run as normal.
Customers are advised to only travel if absolutely necessary, and to check their entire journeys on the updated journey planners via the SWR website.
Normal service is expected on most lines on Sunday, July 30, though some services may be reduced as a result of the previous day’s disruption.
Between Monday, July 31, and Saturday, August 5, a reduced timetable will operate across the SWR network due to an overtime ban put in place by the ASLEF union.
The Waterloo-Reading line will run usual services during peak times, and hourly services during off-peak hours.
The Waterloo-Dorking and Waterloo-Guildford lines will operate their usual hourly services with some peak services removed.
Lines between Waterloo and Woking, Hampton Court, Chessington South, Windsor & Eton Riverside, and Weybridge will also see usual services in peak times with hourly services in off-peak times.
Stuart Meek, South Western Railway’s chief operating officer, said: “I am sorry to say that strike action by the RMT union and industrial action by the ASLEF union will affect our services in the coming weeks.
“On Saturday 29 July, strike action by the RMT union will mean that we will operate a significantly reduced service with large parts of our network closed.
“Customers should only travel if their journeys are absolutely necessary. Customers should also note the times of the last trains of the day, which will be much earlier than usual.”
He continued: “A ban on overtime working by the ASLEF union will then affect our network between Monday 31 July and Saturday 5 August.
“A reduced timetable will operate across our network and customers should check before they travel.
“We have started planning for the ASLEF union overtime ban that will take place between Monday 7 and Saturday 12 August– services during this period will be announced in due course.
“We are very sorry for the large amount of disruption our customers will experience as a result of this damaging action by the RMT and ASLEF unions.”
Full details of strike timetables and affected services are available via: southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey
