South Western Railway has confirmed its services on days of industrial and strike action in September and October, with no services on Island Line on Saturday 30th September and Wednesday 4th October.
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.
ASLEF union industrial and strike action will affect the SWR network on the following dates:
• Friday 29th September – overtime ban
• Saturday 30th September – strike action
• Monday 2nd October – overtime ban
• Tuesday 3rd October – overtime ban
• Wednesday 4th October – strike action
• Thursday 5th October – overtime ban
• Friday 6th October – overtime ban
On Saturday 30th September trains will only run between London Waterloo and Basingstoke, Woking and Guildford via Woking. On Wednesday 4th 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 07:00 and 19:00. There will be no other services outside of these times.
There will be no service on the Island Line on these 2 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 29th September and Monday 2nd, Tuesday 3rd, Thursday 5th and Friday 6th October, a normal weekday timetable will operate with a small number of cancellations while 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 2 weeks, we will be forced to make changes to our timetables.
“We will run an extremely limited service on both Saturday 30th September and Wednesday 4th 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 7 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.”
If a company is dependent on overtime that company is understaffed.
Every train operating company relies on staff to work overtime.
So Stuart Meek South Western Railway (SWR) Chief Operating Officer (CEO) is once again very sorry and thanks customers for their continued patience.
What the CEO doesn’t say is that SWR is one of the train operating companies (TOC’s) that when COVID came along in March 2020 told the government they could no longer afford to run their franchise handing control back to the Department for Transport (DFT).
SWR were bailed out by the DFT with taxpayers monies being paid to their shareholders – meanwhile railway employees worked throughout COVID and continue to without a pay increase since 2019.
As the DFT now pull the strings SWR are merely puppets – don’t be fooled in blaming railway employees for the companies and politicians shortcomings.
Strikes on this appalling service make no difference. It rarely runs properly anyway. SWR couldn’t care less about it. No one wants the franchise.
Call it a day with South Western Railway’s Island Line and hand the whole lot over to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. Their trains run on time every time. .
Factually incorrect though. Just saying.
Shut the bloody thing down and make the lazy staff work for a living