RAIL customers are being urged to only travel if "absolutely necessary" this weekend as more strikes take place across the network. 

South Western Railway says customers should expect "severe disruption" due to planned RMT and TSSA strikes this Saturday.

Publishing its strike day timetable, the company said services will be reduced on the routes Network Rail has made available, with significant parts of the network closed completely. 

Due to the impact, customers are also urged only to travel if absolutely necessary on Sunday when first trains will start much later than usual and are likely to be busy. 

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The reduced timetable will run from 7.15am to 6.30pm on Saturday and includes two fast trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Southampton Central. 

South Western Railway’s Performance and Planning Director, Steve Tyler, said: “I’m sorry that due to strike action we must urge our customers to only travel if absolutely necessary.

"Those needing to travel should seek to do so by other means.  

“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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Other services running will be two trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Feltham; two semi-fast trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Basingstoke and four trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Woking. 

Trains will not stop at all the stations on these routes and there will be no SWR services across the rest of the network. 

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.

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