South Western Railway strike: Cancellations, delays and overcrowding on day one of walkout

Standing room: Alison Bunce tweeted this picture of a busy train at Staines
PA

Hundreds of thousands of commuters were suffering huge disruption on train journeys to Waterloo today as the first of a month of strikes led to mass cancellations, delays and overcrowding.

Many had to endure long queues at local stations even to get on to the platform at the start of one of the longest walkouts in rail history.

South Western Railway (SWR), which runs services from south west London, Surrey, Hampshire and the south west in and out of Britain’s busiest station, said it had been forced to cancel almost half its daily schedule of around 1,800 trains.

A total of 27 days of strikes were called by the RMT union over a dispute about the future role of guards on new trains. The walkouts will last up to and including New Year’s Day with the only exceptions being December 12 for the general election, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The last trains home from Waterloo will run before 11pm, even on Saturdays, hitting Christmas and New Year festivities.

City analysts have estimated that the strikes could cost businesses up to £25 million a day and £400 million in total.

There was also a fresh row as union leaders claimed contingency guards brought in to run some trains were “under-trained and potentially dangerous”. This was robustly denied by SWR, which said replacement staff were fully trained.

Furious commuters endured delays, crowded platforms and packed carriages.

Angela Lewis, 44, an administrator in the City from Earlsfield, said: “There were huge queues onto the street, people fed up and tempers already being tested. I think the length of this strike will really push people’s buttons. It’s getting closer to Christmas when people are already stressed enough and they don’t want to have to fight their way to work.”

Mo Aslan, 27, who boarded a SWR train from Wimbledon, said: “It’s a joke today and it will just get worse. People couldn’t even give up their seats because the train was so jammed.”

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Today’s action is another blow for passengers. The union involved is trying to put Corbyn in Downing Street by disrupting ordinary people trying to get to work or home to their kids.”

A signal failure in the Wokingham area delayed and cancelled Reading and Ascot services adding to the strike disruption. Some services from Reading were forced to stop and start at Ascot. There were delays getting replacement buses into service. All SWR’s 300,000-plus daily users were warned to check before they travelled

Talks at Acas, the conciliation service, broke up last Thursday evening and there are no new negotiations planned.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT members are standing rock solid and united this morning as we begin a full month of strike action in support of the safest method of train operation and despatch. This strike is solely about protecting safety and accessibility on SWR trains.”

When commuters return from the Christmas break on January 2 they will be hit with a 2.8 per cent increase in fares, adding more than £100 to many long-distance season tickets.

From Bournemouth the annual ticket goes up by £194 to £7,138; Salisbury up £157 to £5,749; Winchester £148 to £5,440; and Basingstoke £128 to £4,692.

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