RAIL passengers are being urged to only travel if absolutely necessary as workers go on strike again. 

Taking place today and Saturday, the industrial action over pay will see reduced services to and from Southampton.

Also expected to impact services on Friday and Sunday, the strike will see 2,100 South Western Railway (SWR) staff walk out.

As a result, the rail company's reduced timetable will run from 7.15am to 6.30pm today and on Saturday. 

The only trains from Southampton Central during this period will be fast trains running twice hourly to and from London Waterloo.

READ MORE: Rail strikes: See how each operator is affected and what services are running this week

Other services running across the SWR network are four trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Windsor & Eton Riverside via Hounslow and two semi-fast trains per hour in each direction between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 

Four trains will also be running each hour between London Waterloo and Woking. 

SWR’s Commercial Director, Peter Williams, said: “Please only travel if absolutely necessary.

“The scale of the action will be incredibly disruptive for our customers with large parts of our network closed on strike days and a late start up on the morning after each strike day.

Daily Echo: SWR August strike map. SWR August strike map.

“We are sorry that strikes will again cause such disruption. We are grateful to our customers for their continued cooperation, patience, and understanding as the rail industry works to bring this damaging nationwide strike action to an end.” 

Trains will not stop at all the stations on these routes and there will be no SWR services across the rest of the network. 

Transport for London services both underground and overground services will also be affected by strikes all day on Friday with some bus services disrupted on Friday and Saturday.

Connections with SWR services in London are likely to be impacted, or not run at all. 

SWR will not be affected by the planned ASLEF strike action on Saturday 13 August, but some other train companies will be, so customers should check before they travel.    

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