Commuters are once again being advised to only travel when “absolutely necessary” ahead of the latest series of rail strikes.
Services on both South Western Railway and Great Western Railway will be impacted when the trade unions RMT, TSSA and Unite walk-out on Saturday, November 5, Monday, November 7 and Wednesday, November 9.
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.
There will be no services between Weymouth and London Waterloo on the three strike dates with non-strike dates seeing first services starting later than usual and expected to be very busy.
Great Western Railway, meanwhile, has said there will be “extremely limited services” on strike dates with no trains scheduled between Weymouth and Bristol.
On 5 and 9 November, more than 2,100 SWR members of the RMT union will join the strike action. On 9 November only, SWR members of the TSSA union will also strike.
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.
Network Rail’s interim Western route director, David Davidson, said: "I would like to sincerely apologise to passengers for another period of disruption owing to this latest strike action.
“Our message to passengers is clear – please only travel if absolutely necessary. For those passengers who must travel by train during time, please expect severe disruption, plan ahead and check the time of your last train home.
“Please continue to check with your train operator on the services they are running or visit the National Rail Enquiries website for more information.”
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 by rail if absolutely necessary from Saturday 5 to Thursday 10 November.
"Large parts of our network will be closed on strike days 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.
“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.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here