No South Western Railway (SWR) trains will go through Dorset next Wednesday as staff are set to go on strike.

Network Rail and more than 2,100 SWR RMT members are set to take strike action on Wednesday, July 27.

The strike day will severely disrupt rail services, with SWR publishing its reduced timetable. Significant parts of the network have closed entirely and those trains that are running will be far less frequent compared to normal.

SWR's reduced timetable will run from 7.15am to 6.30pm on the strike day and will consist of four trains per hour in each direction between Waterloo and Windsor, two semi-fast trains per hour in each direction between Waterloo and Basingstoke, four trains per hour in each direction between Waterloo and Woking and two fast trains per hour in each direction between Waterloo and Southampton.

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

Significant disruption is also expected on Thursday, July 28 when there will be a late-starting service, with first trains operating much later than usual. Customers should check before they travel.

The RMT has announced further strikes will be taking place on Thursday, August 18 and Saturday, August 20. SWR will be publishing service level information for this period in due course.

Claire Mann, SWR's managing director, said: "The scale of the planned industrial action limits the number of trains we can run and routes we can serve, resulting in the severely reduced service we are able to operate on the strike day.

"We urge customers to only travel by rail if absolutely necessary on Wednesday, July 27 and to check before you travel on Thursday, July 28, as we will be running a late-starting service due to the disruption of the strike the previous day.

"We are sorry that strikes will again cause such disruption, and we are grateful to our customers for their continued co-operation, patience and understanding as the rail industry works to end this damaging nationwide strike action."

Visit southwesternrailway.com/strike for the latest information.