Southern to run more trains and buses if next week's 72-hour RMT conductors’ strike goes ahead

• Additional train services compared to last strike
• Additional replacement buses
• Some routes with reduced service
• Some routes with no service

Southern today said it would extend the service it has been able to offer on previous strike days if last-minute talks fail tomorrow and the RMT’s three-day strike goes ahead next week.

If the strike goes ahead, then nearly all 156 stations would have either a train or bus service of some description on the strike days of Tuesday 11, Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 October, and many routes will have trains running later in the day than on previous occasions. Southern expects to run 80 more trains than before and 61% of its normal full timetable. There will be extra staff at stations to help passengers and arrangements will be in place for passengers to use alternative transport providers.

There will still be a restricted service, with many routes having fewer trains, and, unfortunately, on some routes there will be no train service at all but here there will be buses in the peak. On some routes, a service will be provided through ticket acceptance with other train operators. Passengers are urged to plan ahead.

The improvements on previous strike dates are:

• Two peak trains between Uckfield and London Bridge in the morning, with two returning in the late afternoon, supplemented by buses connecting Uckfield, Buxted, Crowborough and Eridge with Tunbridge Wells and Haywards Heath (for rail connections to/from London), where previously there were none
• A reduced train service between Dorking and Horsham where previously there was none
• Later services to Redhill
• Later services on the London Bridge to East Grinstead route
• Later services on the Brighton to Eastbourne route
• Buses between Chichester and Havant
• Buses between Hastings and Eastbourne
• Buses between Redhill and Tonbridge – during peak hours only
• Buses all day between Ashford International and Hastings

Passengers can find out details of these and the rest of the service provision to help plan their journeys at www.southernrailway.com/rmtstrike. There is also a 'heat map' for passengers available on the page.

Angie Doll, Southern Passenger Services Director, said:

"We very much hope that our talks tomorrow will be productive and bring an end to this unnecessary dispute. But if next week’s strike does go ahead, then we will be doing all we can to provide the best possible levels of service for our passengers, using every resource available to us.”

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