RAIL customers will face five days of distribution as South Western Railway staff are set to strike.

South Western Railway (SWR) is urging customers to only travel if absolutely necessary from Tuesday, January 3 to Sunday, January 8 due to strike action.

There will be two SWR semi-fast trains per hour in each direction between London Waterloo and Basingstoke. Trains will not stop at all the stations on these routes. There will be no SWR services across the rest of the network.

SEE ALSO: New Year's Honours list 2023 Basingstoke and Andover recipients

South Western Railway’s managing director Claire Mann said: "I’m sorry that due to the damaging, national strike action by both the RMT and ASLEF unions, a severely reduced service will operate on our network. We must urge our customers to only travel if absolutely necessary between Tuesday 3 and Sunday 8 January.

"Large parts of our network will be closed between Tuesday 3 and Sunday 8 January. On Sunday 8 January there will be a late start to services and so we urge our customers to carefully check their journeys, before they travel, using journey planners.

"We share our customers’ frustration over this nationwide strike action and the impact it has on our network and services. We are grateful to our customers for their continued cooperation, patience, and understanding as the rail industry works to bring this damaging strike action to an end."

The strike action on January 3,4,6 and 7 will mean severely reduced service on infrastructure made available by Network Rail. Trains will run between 7.15am and 6.30pm only.

On January 5, national strike action by the ASLEF union, which will affect depot drivers and significantly limit the number of trains that can be brought into service, will again mean a severely reduced service and the same timetable operating as on other strike days. This strike action will also impact drivers on the Island Line and so there will be no Island Line services on January 5.

READ MORE: The Anvil: Sara Pascoe to perform in Basingstoke

Significant parts of the network will be closed entirely between January 3 and 7. Those trains that are running will be far less frequent and much busier than normal.

Due to the impact of these strike days, customers are also advised to check before travelling on Sunday, January 8, when the first trains will start from around 7:30am and are likely to be very busy. A regular weekend timetable will operate after this late start-up.