Rail chaos continues – for the rest of the week!

The Christmas and New Year holidays may be over but the chaos on South Western Railways (SWR) continues until the weekend.

Thousands of residents across the Kingston borough will be working from home this week, however frontline workers, such as the emergency services, and children trying to reach school, face nightmare journeys.

Kingston station will be closed with travellers advised to try and get to Wimbledon, where a restricted service will run into central London

There are no trains on the main line running through Twickenham and Richmond in to Waterloo, which includes the stations in Whitton, St Margarets, North Sheen and Mortlake.

Similarly, there are no trains on the line in from Shepperton through to Waterloo, which includes popular commuter stations such as Fulwell, Hampton, Hampton Wick, Teddington, and Strawberry Hill.

The combination of strikes by the RMT and a decision by SWR to severely limit services on days when there was no industrial action brought the network to a standstill over the festive season.

The policy has seen the borough's two MPs condemn SWR for failing to maintain services. At the same time, a number of people have complained about delays in getting refunds on tickets and season tickets.

SWR blamed strikes and overtime bans for the disruption.

Some 40,000 RMT members at Network Rail and 14 train operating companies are staging walkouts on Tuesday and Wednesday with another on Friday and Saturday. A separate strike by train drivers in the Aslef union takes place on Thursday.

SWR warned: "Due to nationwide strike action, a severely reduced service will operate on our network from Tuesday, January 3, to Saturday, January 7.

"We are advising customers to only travel if absolutely necessary."

Applications for refunds can be made via this link -

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/contact-and-help/train-ticket-refunds/strike-refunds

The Richmond Park MP, Sarah Olney, said the cuts to services are causing 'significant disruption to households and local businesses across the constituency'.

The Twickenham MP, Munira Wilson, condemned SWR for making the situation worse by cancelling services on non-strike days over Christmas, saying: "The disruption caused by SWR's lack of services on non-strike days means misery for passengers."

She said this caused real hardship for people desperate to get to medical appointments and public sector workers, including a police officer and cancer nurse, to get to work.

Travellers have condemned the company on Twitter with one saying: "Your train service has been pitiful even on non-strike days over Christmas."

Another said: "I despair! We rely on SWR for school with no other viable alternative. I'm at a loss what to do."

The RMT claims that ministers are blocking a resolution of the industrial dispute.

The union says it has managed to secure deals in Scotland, Wales and other areas where the Department for Transport is not involved.