South Western Railway (SWR) are urging customers to only travel by rail if absolutely necessary on Thursday and Saturday due to strike action. 

A severely reduced service will operate between 7am and 6.30pm on Thursday 16 and Saturday 18 March, and services will start later and be busier than usual on Friday 17.

There will be no trains to or from Honiton on these two days and there will be no replacement buses. 

Whilst a strike by National Rail has been called off, the strike by RMT union members (as well as another) will go ahead as scheduled.

SWR's contingency managers will cover some of the absent employees, but, with 40% of the overall workforce eligible to strike, including guards, dispatchers and depot shunters, only a handful of the usual services will be able to run. 

There will also be planned engineering work taking place between Basingstoke and Woking. 

Customers have been warned of further strikes which will take place on Thursday 30 March and Saturday 1 April - the details of which will be released in the coming weeks. 

The latest strikes come after a series of walk-outs and engineering work which took place throughout 2022 and over the New Year. 

You can plan your journey here.

South Western Railway's Chief Operating Officer, Stuart Meek, said: "I'm afraid I have to once again urge our customers to only travel if absolutely necessary on Thursday 16 and Saturday 18 March, and if you do have to travel, please check your entire journey as long-planned engineering works will affect services on the Saturday.  

"While we are pleased to be able to provide additional services for Guildford and Salisbury during this round of strikes, we're sorry that large parts of our network will still be closed. Our contingency managers are stepping in to provide the best service we can, and we thank our customers for their ongoing patience during these latest RMT strikes." 

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