South Western Railway strike: Operator unveils emergency plans ahead of planned Christmas disruption

South Western Railway has unveiled a series of emergency measures ahead of strikes set to take place during the Christmas holidays.

The rail firm is holding crisis talks with the RMT union ahead of 27 days of walkouts planned over the festive season.

In a move to avert the industrial action, SWR promised on Wednesday to keep guards on all trains, an issue at the centre of an ongoing row with union bosses.

The planned action risks paralysing services to and from Waterloo, Britain’s busiest rail station, on almost every day in December.

It comes after Acas, the body mediating talks, brought together the two sides on Tuesday for the first time since the strikes were ordered two weeks ago.

Andy Mellors, Managing Director of South Western Railway, said: “We promise that there will always be a guard on our trains. We also promise our guards will maintain a safety critical role on our trains.

“We believe that these promises deliver what the RMT has been asking for, so these strikes are unnecessary.”

Mr Mellors said SWR would run “more than half” of Monday to Friday services, running a similar number of peak services to previous strike periods and “prioritising capacity”.

The rail boss also said rail replacement services would be implemented in some areas, and is “working to make sure” that tickets are accepted by other travel providers.

He said a detailed timetable would be released early next week, and urged passengers to check its website for updates.

The strike action, which the government has condemned as “unacceptable”, threatens to hit more than 16,000 services, based on previous walkouts when SWR was only able to run two thirds of its weekday service, and under half of weekend trains.

The strikes are set to take place every day next month except from Sunday 1 and Thursday 12 December, and Christmas Day and Boxing Day when services are already suspended.