Four days of strikes begin on South Western Railway
MEMBERS of the RMT have begun four days of strikes on South Western Railway as the long-running dispute about the future role of guards continues. SWR said reduced services are running on its main lines from London to Portsmouth, Weymouth and Exeter, but trains are being replaced by buses on some other routes, usually where there is no alternative train service provided by another operator. There are no SWR services to Bristol, Dorking or Reading. The dispute began in November 2017, soon after the franchise had been launched.
Date announced for Azumas to Lincoln
LNER says it will start running Hitachi-built Azuma trains between London and Lincoln on 21 October. The Intercity Express trains are already running on the East Coast Main Line between London and Edinburgh. There will be six services a day between London and Lincoln instead of the single daily return journey, which is currently provided by an HST. This service will continue with HSTs at first, but the five new services will all be worked by Azumas. The last HST service will be converted to Intercity Expresses later in the year.