South Western Railway warns customers to only travel if necessary amid disruption to services due to Storm Ciarán bringing strong winds and heavy rain

CUSTOMERS should only travel on Thursday if their journeys are entirely necessary, says South Western Railway, due to Storm Ciarán.

As reported in the A&T, gusts of up to 85mph could hit the area, the Met Office has warned, along with heavy rain.

A yellow notice issued by the national weather agency has been stepped up to amber between 3am and 1pm on Thursday, including advice that flying debris could pose a danger to life.

South Western Railway has confirmed that for the safety of customers and colleagues, trains will need to travel at lower speeds and timetables will need to be amended to provide a reliable service.

This includes the London to Waterloo-Weymouth services, which will start and terminate at Bournemouth, with an hourly rail shuttle service between Bournemouth and Weymouth.

Services from Portsmouth Harbour to London Waterloo via Basingstoke will be altered after Basingstoke, calling at Woking only, with services in the opposite direction running as normal.

Following last week’s severe flooding on the Isle of Wight, train services have resumed on the Island Line, with services running once per hour.

Some services will be suspended completely, including those between Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier.

An SWR spokesperson said: “Storm Ciarán will bring heavy rain and strong winds to parts of our network and so, as a precaution, we are making temporary changes to our timetable on Thursday.

“Because of the potential for disruption we’re asking our customers to consider if their journeys are entirely necessary.”

The spokesperson added: “We have been preparing for this storm with our colleagues at Network Rail, but we can’t rule out disruption in those areas of our network.

“In the event of disruption, we won’t be able to run rail replacement bus services, so it’s really important that customers check their whole journey before setting off, if they do intend to travel.”

Customers are asked to check before setting off for their journeys and to double check their return journeys as SWR says short notice changes are possible.

Tickets booked for Thursday will be valid for alternative use today (Wednesday) and Friday.

To check the latest travel information visit www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey