Railway strike warning of ‘severe disruption’
All areas: Industrial action will affect train journeys over three days in August
Rail operators have warned of ‘severe disruption’ ahead of more industrial strikes this weekend and later this month.
The action is planned for Saturday August 13, Thursday, August 18 and Saturday, August 20, with days immediately after the strike days also affected.
A ‘significantly reduced temporary timetable’ has been put in place by rail operators to cope with the loss of staff.
Strike action is being organised by the RMT, Aslef and TSSA unions, with services unable to operate across many routes.
Passengers are advised to find alternative ways to travel on affected dates and only use trains if ‘absolutely necessary’.
An extremely limited Great Western Railway service will operate between 7am and 6.30pm on strike days, with last trains leaving much earlier.
Where trains are able to operate, they will be extremely busy, the operator said, adding it will operate ‘as many trains as possible’ during the strike action.
On Saturday, a limited service will only operate on three routes:
W Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington
W Reading to Oxford
W Reading to Basingstoke
Services will start later and finish much earlier than normal, while no other GWR services will run on this day.
To help alleviate pressure on passengers, GWR is allowing people with tickets for travel on Saturday to be able to travel on the day before and up to and including Tuesday, August 16.
People with tickets for travel on Thursday, August 18 and Saturday, August 20 can travel on the day before and up to and including Tuesday, August 23.
South Western Railway (SWR) – which operates services from Windsor to London – is also urging customers to travel by rail ‘if absolutely necessary’ between August 1821.
Between August 18-20, four trains will operate each way per hour between Windsor and the capital.
“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,” it said.
“Significant parts of the network will be closed entirely and those trains that are running will be far less frequent and much busier compared to normal.”
Staff at Network Rail and more than 2,100 SWR members are set to take strike action on Thursday, August 18 and Saturday, August 20.
“We are sorry that strikes will again cause such disruption. 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,” said SWR’s commercial director Peter Williams.
Transport for London – which operates the Elizabeth line – said that the strikes this weekend will have no impact on its services between Paddington and Reading.
However, the national rail strikes on Thursday, August 18 and Saturday, August 20 will affect the rail network including the Elizabeth line due to its services running on Network Rail infrastructure.
A spokesman added that Transport for London will be releasing information on these strikes ‘in due course’.