UPDATED: South Western Railway have since announced they will be running "a late starting Sunday level of service" on non-strike days.

 

Commuters across Dorset are set to suffer major disruption to services throughout the week as a result of strike action.

There will be NO services running to or from Weymouth on at least three days this week - tomorrow, Thursday and Saturday - with a drastically reduced timetable on the remaining days.

The strike action follows a ballot of RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) members in relation to a dispute over pay and conditions.

Dorset’s branch of the union has announced there will be “lawful picketing” taking place at Weymouth Station on June 21 and 23 as well as along the railway bridge near to Bournemouth’s train station.

A spokesperson for Dorset Rail, the regional RMT union, said: “The strikes are the result of RMT members being balloted for strike action, and action short of strike, regarding thousands of planned job cuts, pay freezes and changes to negotiated terms and conditions.All of our rail members will be out on strike barring successful negotiations taking place.”

Both Great Western Railway and South Western Railway confirmed that there would be no services from Weymouth on the strike days: GWR usually run a route to Bristol whilst SWR have frequent services to London Waterloo.

Commuters are also being advised to seek alternative transport on non-strike days with GWR expecting to run less than one train an hour out of Weymouth: anyone wishing to travel should check the website for times on the day due to the potential for last minute timetable changes.

South Western Railway’s Managing Director, Claire Mann, said: “The sheer scale of this planned industrial action severely limits the number of trains we can run and routes we can serve.

“I am sorry these strikes will cause such disruption and am grateful to our customers for their patience and understanding as the rail industry works to bring this damaging nationwide action to an end.”