Dear Constituent,
A 48 hour rail strike has been announced for 8th and 9th November affecting all South Western Railway services including those operating out of Basingstoke and Hook.
The strike has been called because of a change in the role of Guards on suburban line trains. Two safety critical people (the Driver and a Guard) will be retained on all trains; the disputed change is that on new suburban line trains the doors will be operated by the Driver not the Guard. This reflects the design of new suburban trains and will not happen on any services out of Basingstoke or Hook.
To mitigate the effect on passengers of any proposed strike action South Western Railways have already trained 200 Contingency Guards to help as many trains as possible to run. It is planned that 2/3 of services will run. You can see the strike day timetable on SWRs website at https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/rmt-strike
I will be meeting SWR again after the strike and will discuss any issues that fellow rail users raise with me.
Best wishes,
Rt Hon Maria Miller MP