South Western Railway is introducing a temporary reduced timetable in response to spread of the Omicron variant

South Western Railway (SWR) will be introducing a new temporary timetable from Monday, January 17 due to continuing staffing problems caused by Covid.

The emergence of the Omicron variant has led to staff shortages across SWR, therefore the temporary timetable has been drawn up to meet current demand. The reduced service has been designed to ensure reliability for customers and cater to key workers, school pupils and those who cannot work from home.

SWR says it will continue to monitor its services to ensure that they continue to deliver for its customers and these temporary timetable changes will remain under review.

Updates will take place towards the end of each week, so customers are advised to check before they travel via www.southwesternrailway.com

South Western Railway operates more than 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 employees.

SWR’s Managing Director Claire Mann 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. “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.”

Key timetable changes include:

Waterloo to Exeter services will split at Salisbury

Waterloo to Weymouth services will split at Bournemouth

The Shepperton branch will reduce to hourly

Waterloo to Alton will reduce to hourly

Waterloo to Basingstoke will reduce to hourly

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

You can find the latest timetables at www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/timetables