Very Limited Guildford Rail Services Tomorrow Due to Another Aslef Strike

Published on: 3 Oct, 2023
Updated on: 3 Oct, 2023

A SWR train at Guildford Railway Station

South Western Railway is reminding customers of strike action taking place tomorrow, Wednesday, October 4.

An extremely limited service will run on a small number of lines, with the majority of the network closed.

Services are expected to be very busy. Trains will only run between 7am and 7pm, with no trains running outside of these times.

Customers are also advised to avoid the first and last trains of the day if possible as these are expected to be extremely busy.

Trains will only run between:

London Waterloo and Guildford via Woking
London Waterloo and Basingstoke
London Waterloo and Feltham
Basingstoke and Salisbury

There will be no service on the Island Line.

Customers are advised to only travel if their journeys are absolutely necessary.

If customers must travel, they should check their entire journey using a journey planner, as other train operators are also affected.

Industrial action will again affect the SWR network on Thursday and Friday, October 5 and 6. A normal service is expected to run with a small number of cancellations.

Stuart Meek, South Western Railway’s chief operating officer, said: “I’m sorry to say that, due to industrial and strike action by the ASLEF union, we will be forced to make changes to our timetables this week.

“We will run an extremely limited service on Wednesday October 4 and our advice to customers is to only travel if their journeys are absolutely necessary.

“On all dates of industrial action, customers should check their entire journey before they travel, as other operators will be affected. We’re very sorry for the disruption that this will cause and we’re very grateful to our customers for their continued patience.”

In a statement on the ASLEF website, Mick Whelan, general secretary, said: “While we regret having to take this action – we don’t want to lose a day’s pay, or disrupt passengers, as they try to travel by train – the government, and the employers, have forced us into this position.

“Our members have not, now, had a pay rise for four years – since 2019 – and that’s not right when prices have soared in that time. Train drivers, perfectly reasonably, want to be able to buy now what they could buy four years ago.’

He continued: “Do you remember Where’s Wally? Well, what we want to know is Where’s Harper? We last saw the Secretary of State for Transport in December. We last saw Huw Merriman, the Rail Minister, in January. And we last saw the train companies in April. Since then, nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not a letter, not an email, not a text message, not a phone call, not a WhatsApp. Not a word!”