​Please don't travel, Southern warns train passengers

Southern Railway today advised the travelling public not to travel tomorrow, irrespective of the outcome of today's Court of Appeal hearing to try and obtain an injunction against the drivers' strikes, set to begin at midnight.

Following GTR's application to appeal on Friday evening, the Court of Appeal listed the hearing for this morning given the importance and urgency of the forthcoming strikes and impact on passengers and the regional economy.

Southern says that given the timing of the court's decision, which will be later this afternoon, it will be too late to get trains and drivers in the correct position for tomorrow and any services it can run will be extremely limited. For this reason passengers are still advised not to travel.

Angie Doll, Passenger Services Director for Southern, said: "We hope for the sake of our passengers our application to the Court of Appeal is successful. Even if we are able to stop the strikes through the court, services will still be very heavily impacted tomorrow. We will work through the night to try and provide as many services as possible, but we are still advising passengers not to travel as we will not be able to offer a robust service they can rely on.

"We are sorry but the industrial action by ASLEF leaves us no viable alternative, but be assured we will do all we can overnight."

Passengers are advised to check the Southern website for the latest information.

ENDS