South Western Railway has announced a severely reduced level of service for this weekend's planned RMT and TSSA industrial action.

Workers are striking over pay and conditions, with unions objecting to pay offers that sit well below the rate of inflation.

Initially, widespread action was due to take place on Thursday, September 15th and Saturday, September 17th, as well as a separate 24-hour walkout scheduled for Monday 26th September, however, all three strikes were called off after news of the Queen's death broke.

SWR are now advising commuters to only travel if absolutely necessary over the following two consecutive weekends with more than 2,100 SWR members of the RMT union expected to strike.

A reduced timetable will run from 07:15 to 18:30 on October 1st, and will consist of:

• Two trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Feltham  
• Two semi-fast trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Basingstoke 
• Four trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Woking 
• Two fast trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Southampton Central 

Trains will not stop at all stations of these routes and there will be no SWR service across the rest of the network.

Due to the impact of the strike days, customers are also urged to avoid travelling on Sunday (2nd). A timetable has not been officially announced but SWR will be operating a late-start Sunday service across the network.

South Western Railway's Performance and Planning Director, Steve Tyler, said: "I'm sorry that due to strike action we must urge our customers to only travel if absolutely necessary on Saturday 1st October and Sunday 2nd 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 the 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." 

SWR has announced services that will run during the October 8th and October 9th strike days will be released in 'due course'. Customers are able to keep up to date with announcements here.