COMMUTERS have been warned of severe delays to train times this weekend as strikes continue.

A planned national strike is taking place this weekend, October 8 and 9.

South Western Railway (SWR) customers have been urged to only travel by rail is "absolutely necessary".

SWR will run a reduced service on Saturday, October 8, with significant parts of the network closed entirely.

A severely reduced service will run between 7.15pm and 6.30pm on a limited number of routes.

SWR will be unable to run services between Basingstoke and Southampton on the mainline and services towards Windsor will only run as far as Hounslow due to planned engineering works.

Sunday will also be significantly impacted by the strike and first trains across the network will start much later than usual.

Staff at Network Rail and more than 2,100 SWR members of the RMT union are set to take strike action.

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 on Saturday 8 October and Sunday 9 October.

"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.”

SWR’s reduced timetable will run from 7.15am to 6.30pm on Saturday, October 8:

  • Four trains per hour in each way between London Waterloo and Woking
  • Two semi-fast trains per hour each way between London Waterloo and Basingstoke
  • Two trains per hour each way between London Waterloo and Hounslow

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this article - we appreciate your support in reading the Daily Echo.

Subscribing to the Echo means you have unrestricted access to the latest news, features and Saints coverage - all with an advertising-light website.

You will also have full access to Saintsplus, your new home for Southampton FC tactical analysis, features and much, much more.

Don't just take my word for it - subscribe today.

Follow the latest breaking news in the Southampton area by searching Southampton News - Breaking News and Incidents on Facebook

Follow the latest court and crime news on our dedicated group by searching Hampshire Court and Crime News on Facebook