A NATIONAL train strike will be taking place next weekend and travellers advised to only travel if absolutely necessary.

South Western Railway will be running a "severely reduced" service next Saturday, with significant parts of the network completely closed.

Staff at Network Rail, more than 2,100 SWR members of the RMT union, and SWR members of the TSSA union are set to take strike action on the Saturday, causing severe disruption.

Network Rail will provide contingency cover for critical roles including electrical control room operators, signallers, maintenance, and response teams, but will not be able to cover the whole day.

There will be a severely reduced service all day between 07:15 and 18:30, with only a limited number of routes running.

There will only be two fast trains an hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Southampton Central.

Trains will not stop at all the stations on the routes, and there will be no South Western Railway services across the rest of the network. 

Next Sunday will also be significantly impacted, with the first trains starting much later than usual.

South Western Railway’s Performance and Planning Director, Steve Tyler, apologised for the disruption.

He said: “I’m sorry that due to strike action we must urge our customers to only travel if absolutely necessary on Saturday October 1 and Sunday October 2. Those needing to travel should seek to do so by other means.  

“Large parts of our network will be closed on the strike day and there will be a late start up on the morning after. Those who must travel are urged to carefully check the times of first and last trains and avoid them if possible as they are likely to be very busy. 

“We are grateful to our customers for their continued cooperation, patience, and understanding as the rail industry works to bring this damaging nationwide strike action to an end.” 

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