We promised to update you on travel over Christmas and New Year. The Rail Maritime Transport union (RMT) are on strike from Christmas Eve through to Tuesday 27th December. We do not run trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, but this means that trains will finish much earlier than usual on Christmas Eve. We are asking customers to complete their journeys by lunchtime, and services will start up again after midday on Tuesday 27 December. A reduced level of service will then operate through to 2nd January with further strikes on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th January and Friday 6th and Saturday 7th January. Services on Thursday 5th and Sunday 8th will be impacted with later starts to services than usual. The RMT are also taking industrial action, short of a strike throughout this week (Monday 19 December to Friday 23 December). We are expecting to run a full timetable, however, given this continuing action services could be subject to short-notice alterations and cancellations. Customers should therefore check again before they travel using www.gwr.com/check All the latest on industrial action including a journey checker for looking at specific journeys and advice on refunds is on our dedicated webpage www.gwr.com/strike – any help you can give us in highlighting this page, and in reminding people to check their journeys and travel earlier if they can will be very helpful. We also need to let you know about another strike that is impacting our services. Servest, who clean our trains and our stations, have let us know that their staff are also on strike on Thursday 22nd, Friday 23rd and Saturday 31st December. We will do our best through our own staff and volunteers, but there will be a knock-on effect on the cleanliness of our trains and stations during this period. For anyone who is looking for some light reading over the festive period, we have just published our Customer & Stakeholder Report Mid Year Report, which can be downloaded as a PDF from our webpage here: https://www.gwr.com/about-gwr/our-business/partners-and-stakeholders And finally, our very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year, and grateful thanks for all your help and support in 2022. We will be available right through Christmas, so do let us know if you need anything, and again, thank you for your help.
