There will be a national rail strike on Saturday 8 October and, as a result, the services will be severely restricted.

Long-planned engineering work will also reduce the network available to SWR, meaning fewer services will run compared to previous strike days.

There will be no services south of Basingstoke on 8 October and services will also be affected on 9 October. South Western Railway has advised that customers should expect severe disruption on the network and, if they must travel on either of those days, should seek to do so by other means.

Due to the impact of the strike day, on Sunday 9 October, the first trains will start much later than usual across the network and are likely to be very busy.

Steve Tyler, South Western Railway’s performance and planning director, said: “I’m sorry that due to strike action we must urge our customers to only travel if absolutely necessary on Saturday 8 October and Sunday 9 October. Those needing to travel should seek to do so by other means.

“Large parts of our network will be closed on the strike day 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 as they are likely to be very busy.

“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.”

Full details can be found here: https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/industrial-action