SOUTH Western Railway is urging its customers not to travel by train unless absolutely necessary during the next round of national strike action.

Network Rail staff and more than 2,100 SWR employees are due to walk out on Thursday, August 18 and Saturday, 20 August, in a move that will cause major disruption.

SWR says it will run a severely reduced service, with large parts of the network closed entirely.

Daily Echo: The next national rail strikes are due to take place on August 18 and 20.The next national rail strikes are due to take place on August 18 and 20.

Trains operating on the two strike days will run only between 7.15am and 6.30pm, on a limited number of routes, for those with no choice but to travel.

Services will also be affected on August 19 and 21, with the first trains of the day starting much later than normal.

A company spokesperson said: "SWR is urging customers only to travel by rail if absolutely necessary between August 18-21 due to the planned industrial action.

"Customers should expect severe disruption on the network and, if they must travel on any of those days, should seek to do so by other means."

Daily Echo: The next national rail strikes are due to take place on August 18 and 20.The next national rail strikes are due to take place on August 18 and 20.

On August 18 and 20 SWR will run two fast trains an hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Southampton Central, with the first train leaving Southampton at 7.30am and the last departing at 4.59pm. 

But trains will not stop at all stations and no SWR services will operate in many other parts of the region.

SWR will not be affected by the planned ASLEF strike action on Saturday, August 13, but has warned that some other train companies will be hit.

SWR's commercial director, Peter Williams, said: "Please only travel if absolutely necessary between Thursday 18 and Sunday 21 August as strike action will severely impact our services.

Daily Echo: The next national rail strikes are due to take place on August 18 and 20.The next national rail strikes are due to take place on August 18 and 20.

"Those who must travel are urged to carefully check the times of first and last trains and seek alternative means of travel.

“The scale of the action will be incredibly disruptive for our customers with large parts of our network closed on strike days and a late start-up on the morning after each strike day.

"First trains will run much later than usual and are likely to be very busy, so please travel later in the day if you can.

“We're grateful to our customers for their continued co-operation, patience, and understanding as the rail industry works to bring this strike action to an end.”

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 take my word for it - subscribe here to see for yourself.

Follow the latest breaking news in the Southampton area by joining our Facebook group - Southampton News - Breaking News and Incidents

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