South Western Railway (SWR) is amending its timetable for tomorrow (Thursday 2 November) and advising passengers to consider not travelling if their journey is not essential, due to Storm Ciarán.

Strong winds and heavy rain are expected in the West Country, along the South Coast and on the Isle of Wight. For the safety of workers and passengers, trains will travel at lower speeds and timetables will be changed to ensure that the service is reliable.

The timetable alterations on Thursday 2 November are as follows:

• Services between London Waterloo and Weymouth will start and terminate at Bournemouth, with an hourly rail shuttle service between Bournemouth and Weymouth.
• Services from Portsmouth Harbour to London Waterloo via Basingstoke will be changed after Basingstoke, calling at Woking only, with services in the opposite direction running as normal.
• Services between London Waterloo and Salisbury will run once per hour.
• Services between Salisbury and Exeter St Davids will run once every two hours.
• Shuttle services between Basingstoke and Salisbury will be suspended.
• Services between Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier will be suspended.
• Train services have resumed on the Isle of Wight’s Island Line between Ryde St. John’s Road and Shanklin after severe flooding last week. Trains will run once per hour both today (Wednesday 1) and tomorrow (Thursday 2 November), while the rail replacement bus service will continue to run between Ryde Pier Head and Ryde St. John’s Road.

SWR promises that its journey planners will be kept up to date on Thursday 2 November, and is asking passengers to check before setting off, and then check again before their return journeys.

The operator is warning that it might make further changes at short notice, and is advising passengers to consider travelling on a different day to avoid disruption. Tickets booked for Thursday 2 November will be valid on Wednesday 1 and Friday 3 November.

Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Brent Walker, said “Wind and rain warnings associated with Storm Ciarán are in force from tonight through until Friday, with further updates possible. These include Amber warnings for wind for parts of southwest England on Thursday morning and the far south and southeast of England Thursday daytime and early evening.

An SWR spokesperson said: “Storm Ciarán will bring heavy rain and strong winds to parts of our network and so, as a precaution, we are making temporary changes to our timetable on Thursday 2 November.

“Because of the potential for disruption we’re asking our customers to consider if their journeys are entirely necessary. Customers may also wish to consider travelling on alternative days, as ticket acceptance is in place for today and Friday.

“We have been preparing for this storm with our colleagues at Network Rail, but we can’t rule out disruption in those areas of our network on Thursday. In the event of disruption, we won’t be able to run rail replacement bus services, so it’s really important that customers check their whole journey before setting off, if they do intend to travel.”