Workers will go on strike for the majority of December (Picture: PA)

Rail workers for South Western Railway have announced that they are to go on strike for the majority of December in a row over guards.

The disruption is expected to cause travel chaos for commuters and Christmas shoppers.

South Western Railway staff will walk out on December 2 until January 2, only returning to work on the day of the General Election.

The strike is officially not taking place on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, but the company will not be running services on those days anyway.


The RMT union cited SWR’s ‘unremitting failure to give assurances that their new operational model won’t move to Driver Controlled Operation – with the role of the guard butchered completely – means the union has been left with no alternative but to call further industrial action.’



South Western Railway strike dates

The union said staff will walk out from midnight on Monday December 2 until midnight 11.59pm on December 11.

They will then go on strike again from midnight on Friday December 13 until 11.59pm on December 24.

The third strike action will take place from Friday December 27 until 11.59pm on January 1, 2010.

Map showing the areas South Western Railway covers

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: ‘Our members have been left with no choice but to call a further 27 days of strike action on South Western Railway.

‘At the last meeting we held with SWR principles in agreements were made in good faith with the company’s negotiating team and we now feel hugely let down again. As long as the company continues to refuse to give assurances on the future operational role of the guard we will remain in dispute.

‘I want to congratulate our members on their continued resolve in their fight for safety and the role of the guard on SWR. It is wholly down to the management side that the core issue of the safety critical competencies and the role of the guard has not been agreed.

‘The union remains available for talks.’

The strike action comes as commuters were warned that engineering works would hit some of the UK’s busiest rail lines.

Workers are not happy about the scrapping of guards from trains (Picture: Getty)

London Paddington will be closed from December 24-27 and a reduced timetable will be in place over the following four days as Network Rail carries out work as part of the heavily delayed Crossrail project.

This will affect Great Western Railway, Heathrow Express and TfL Rail services.

Network Rail is carrying out a total of 386 projects over the festive period.

There are around 25% fewer engineers working this Christmas compared with 2018, meaning more lines and services will operate as normal.

Major upgrade works are taking place at London King’s Cross, including tunnel and structure work, drainage inspections and upgrading overhead line equipment.

The majority of this will take place over Christmas Day and Boxing Day – when most of the rail network is traditionally shut down – but there will also be limited trains from the station during the morning of December 27.

Other engineering work means Southeastern Highspeed and Eurostar trains will not stop at Ashford, Kent between December 26-29.

Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said: ‘Our passengers want and deserve a more reliable railway and that’s why this Christmas we are out working on the track and behind the scenes to help make that happen.



‘Significantly fewer people travel over the Christmas holidays, which is why we do so much work at this time of year.

‘But we know some of our passengers will have important plans, so please check before you travel. We have plenty of people in our stations in the run up to and over the break who are on hand to help.’

MORE: Christmas travel chaos ahead with 10 days of rail works planned across UK