South Western Railway warns of delays amid upcoming strike action involving RMT and ASLEF unions on Friday and Saturday 12th and 13th May.

Rail users in the New Forest and Christchurch are being urged to make other arrangements as strikes hit the network over Friday and Saturday.

Strike action by Aslef will see a reduced service on Friday between Exeter and Waterloo, and may be subject to short-notice delay and cancellation. An up-to-date timetable will be available from tomorrow (Thursday).

However, on Saturday all stations south of Basingstoke will be closed due to another RMT walkout, and there will be a “significantly reduced” services

SWR will service only the following routes:

• London Waterloo to Windsor via Hounslow – 2 trains per hour reducing to 1 from mid-afternoon
• London Waterloo to Windsor via Richmond – 2 trains per hour
• London Waterloo to Woking – 4 trains per hour
• London Waterloo to Basingstoke – 1 fast and 2 semi-fast trains per hour
• Basingstoke to Salisbury – 1 train per hour
• A reduced service on the Island Line

Due to planned engineering work in the Winchester area, trains will not run between Basingstoke and Southampton Central.

SWR’s managing director Claire Mann said: “I’m sorry to say that due to nationwide industrial action by the RMT and ASLEF unions we will be forced to make changes to our services on three sets of dates in May.

“We will confirm our services for 12th May as soon as possible and we appreciate our customers’ patience while we do so.

“In recent weeks we have been exceptionally busy preparing for the coronation and are now focused on providing timetables that our customers can have confidence in.

“For 12th May we are asking customers to check before travelling, with the latest information available online.

“For Saturday we are advising customers to only travel if their journeys are absolutely necessary, with a significantly reduced service on a limited number of lines.”

Between 15th and 20th May there will also be a nationwide ban on non-contractual overtime by ASLEF union members.

She added: “We intend to run a full timetable [during this period] but we are warning customers that in the event of disruption on the network, short notice delays and cancellations are possible.

“Our advice is to check before travelling and again, we will confirm our train service as soon as possible, with the latest information on our website.”

For more information visit www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey