SWR Announces Details of Strike Day Services
Train company urging passengers to travel only if necessary
There will be a limited service on strike days. Picture: SWR
December 9, 2022
South Western Railway (SWR) has announced its planned service levels during strike action due to take place from Tuesday 13 December to Sunday 18 December.
The train company is advising people not to travel during this period unless absolutely necessary, but it will be laying on a reduced service between 7.15am and 6.30pm for those that need to travel on the strike days (13, 14, 16, and 17 December).
Thursday 15 December and Sunday 18 December will also be significantly impacted by the strike; first trains across the network will start much later than usual and are likely to be very busy.
There is also a warning about ongoing disruption from Sunday 18 December to Monday 2 January due to an RMT overtime ban.
Over 2,100 members of the union work for SWR and significant parts of the network will be closed on strike days.
The services that are running are the same as have been provided during previous strikes.
There will be four trains an hour running between Waterloo and Windsor serving stations on the Hounslow Loop which includes Brentford, Chiswick, Isleworth, Kew Bridge and Syon Lane.
This service will also provide the only trains serving Putney, Barnes, Barnes Bridge and Wandsworth Town.
In addition, four trains an hour will run between Woking and Waterloo calling at Wimbledon. Southern Rail also serves Wimbledon and during the last strikes it attempted to run a Sunday service.
There will also be non-stopping trains running a reduced service from Basingstoke and Southampton.
There will be no SWR services across the rest of the network.
Negotiations between the Rail Delivery Group (RDC), which represents the train companies, and the RMT broke down earlier this week. The union says that this is because, although the RDC wanted to table an improved offer, the government was insisting making this dependent on the implementation of Driver Only Operation (DOO) as a national principle across the railways. The RMT says that it will never accept this and therefore confirmed the strikes will definitely proceed.
South Western Railway’s Performance and Planning Director, Steve Tyler, said, “We appreciate that customers will be eager to enjoy the festive season, so we’re really sorry that we must urge them to only travel by rail if absolutely necessary from Tuesday 13 December to Sunday 18 December.
“The nationwide strike action means we can only operate a severely reduced timetable from 07:15 to 18:30 only, with much of the network closed entirely.
“The strike period will be followed by two weeks of further disruption on the network, as the RMT has instructed their members not to book any overtime until 2 January.
“After months of damaging strike action, we are grateful to our customers for their continued cooperation, patience, and understanding as the rail industry works to bring this dispute to an end.”
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