REMINDER NATIONAL STRIKE: Only travel if your journey is absolutely necessary

The strike will affect Southern and Thameslink on 18 and 20 August

Passengers should travel only if absolutely necessary on Southern, Great Northern and Thameslink on Thursday 18 and Saturday 20 August and the mornings after on Friday 19 and Sunday 21 August due to this week's strike by RMT members at Network Rail and UK train operators.

Strike days, 18 and 20 August

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) will be running the same service plan as for the last strikes in July and warns there will be very few trains, with crowding expected, particularly on first and last trains. Gatwick Express will not operate although the airport will have a limited Southern and Thameslink service.

There will be no service at all on many lines south of London or on the route between Cambridge and King’s Lynn (see map). Trains will start running at around 7.30am and finish between 4.30pm and 6.30pm. However, passengers need to check what this means for their journeys as first trains may not reach stations until considerable later than usual and last trains will end much earlier than usual.

Friday 19 August and Sunday 21 August

Services will also start later the morning after each strike, with an amended Sunday service set to run on Friday 19 August. Morning trains are likely to be very busy. Customers are recommended to travel later, plan their journeys and check again before travelling. On Friday 19 August, strike action in London on underground and bus services may further impact journeys.

Online journey planners such as nationalrail.co.uk are up-to-date with the latest service information for Thursday 18, Friday 19 and Saturday 20 August. Sunday 21 August is also live, however there will still be amendments to early morning services.

GTR has once again been in touch with local stakeholders, including hospitals, to notify them of the impact of the RMT strike action.

See notes to editors for more details.

Angie Doll, Chief Operating Officer, Govia Thameslink Railway, said: 

“We’re very sorry that our strong advice to passengers is to travel by rail only if absolutely necessary on Thursday 18 August and Saturday 20 August. Strike action by RMT members means train services across the country will be significantly limited once again, with many routes not running at all.

“Services for the whole period between the 18 and 21 August will also start much later in the morning than usual, so please travel later in the day if you can. First trains will be extremely busy and therefore you may not be able to board. Trains on strike days will also finish as early as 4.30pm so please plan ahead if you absolutely have to travel on these days.

“We’re so disappointed that rail disruption due to strikes is affecting our passengers again. We urge the RMT to work with the industry and come to a resolution.”

Striking signallers at Network Rail will have the greatest impact on the service, leading GTR to focus on providing a service on its busiest mainline routes only.

Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said:

“It saddens me that we are again having to ask passengers to stay away from the railway for two days next week due to unnecessary strike action, when we should be helping them enjoy their summers.

“We’ll run as many services as we can Thursday and Saturday, but it will only be around a fifth of the usual timetable, so please only travel if absolutely necessary and if you must travel, plan ahead and check when your last train will be.”

Source GTR Press office