Members of the RMT rail union on SWR are set to down tools for 24 hours on Sunday, December 31 in an ongoing dispute over the threat to guards, with further industrial action to follow in January.
However, SWR has confirmed contingency plans are in place to run as many train services as possible, with the rail operator hoping to run around three-quarters of its normal train service on New Years Eve.
This includes a revised timetable on the Alton line, as well as rail replacement buses elsewhere on the network. Full details of the revised timetable are yet to be published, but passengers are advised to check before they travel online at https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/rmt-strike .
Andy Mellors, SWR managing director, apologised for the disruption and hit out at the RMT rail union for targeting passengers wishing to celebrate the New Year with friends and family.
He said: “We are sorry that many of our passengers will find trains much busier than normal on New Year’s Eve. There will be a revised timetable in place and queues are expected at stations due to this unnecessary strike action by the RMT.
“All our passengers want to do is to travel to be with their friends and loved ones for the New Year celebrations. We have repeatedly assured the RMT that we plan to keep Guards on our trains as we know how much a second person is valued by our passengers. We have now put contingency plans in place to keep passengers moving should this strike go ahead.”
SWR members joined the picket lines for the first time on November 8 and 9 in the long-running dispute, and the RMT announced last week that it is to take further action in January over what it describes as “the attack on the role of the safety-critical guard and the extension of driver-only operation in the name of increased profits”.
Along with those on Northern, Merseyrail and Greater Anglia, South Western Railway and Island Line union members have been instructed not to book for any shifts between 12.01am hours and 11.59pm on January 8, January 10 and January 12.
While no mention was made in this statement about the New Year’s Eve strike, SWR says that it has received no notification from RMT that this particular stoppage has been cancelled and will continue to plan for it.
Still in the process, as the Herald went to press, of finalising plans, so unable to provide specific details, a South Western Railway spokesman said: “Our advice at the moment is to check our RMT strike web page for the latest updates.”
The website will provide a network map to show where reduced services and bus-replacement services will run during the scheduled strikes.