South Western Railway to cut services as Omicron leads to staff shortages

The railway service announced the new timetable today as the spread of Omicron has led to staff shortages across the company.

The new timetable will come into effect from January 17 and it is designed to cater for key workers, school pupils and those who are unable to work from home.

South Western Railway has stated that the changes will remain under review as they advised passengers to check their website for updates which will take place at the end of each week.

The operator stated that 'rigorous planning' has gone into the updated timetable to ensure that it will 'deliver the right level of service for the current situation’.

Claire Mann, SWR managing director, said: 'The spread of the Omicron variant has had a significant impact on our railway, with fewer people using the train and staff shortages impacting on our ability to consistently deliver the current timetable.

‘Having assessed demand and spoken to our industry colleagues, we believe this new timetable is the most effective means of ensuring our customers receive a reliable service, with short-notice cancellations minimised.

‘Journey planners will be updated on a week-by-week basis, with updates taking place towards the end of each week. Customers should check their journey as close to their time of travel as possible.’

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Key timetable changes include:

-Waterloo to Exeter services will be split at Salisbury

-Waterloo to Weymouth services will split at Bournemouth

-The Shepperton Branch will reduce to hourly

-Waterloo to Basingstoke will reduce to hourly

-The last train of each day will be earlier than at present.

To keep up to date with the changes, you can find the latest timetables here.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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