South Western Railway has announced more details about plans for tomorrow’s national rail strike by the RMT Union. Strikes are due to take place on South Western Railway and also on most other Train Operating Companies and at Network Rail on Saturday 1 October.
As with previous strikes, SWR’s message to customers is to only travel by rail if absolutely necessary on this date, to seek alternative arrangements if possible, and if they must travel to expect severe disruption. SWR expect there to be a knock-on impact to the start-up of their services on the following day, Sunday 2 October.
SWR has announced drivers will not be involved in the separate ASLEF strike action on Wednesday 5 October. Customers should still check before they travel on this date as their connections with other operators might be affected, or not run at all.
On strike days, four trains per hour in both directions will operate on the Woking to London Waterloo line stopping at Weybridge. The first train from Woking will leave at 07:18 and the last will leave at 17:48. The first train from Waterloo will leave at 07:20 and the last train back towards Woking will leave at 17:50. No service will operate on the line through Runnymede calling at Addlestone, Chertsey, Virginia Water and Egham.
Information and updates will be published by SWR at https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/industrial-action
As I have previously written, these strikes are incredibly disruptive and damaging to local residents and businesses. I am deeply disappointed the unions continue to pursue these actions rather than meaningful negotiation, with apparent little regard for the impact this disruption causes to thousands of rail passengers.
