ITV News

Hundreds of thousands of rail passengers faced travel misery on Monday at the start of a series of strikes in the long-running dispute over guards on trains. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union on South Western Railway (SWR) walked out on the first of 27 days of industrial action lasting until New Years Day “ the longest stretch of action against a major rail operator in living memory. Passengers have been warned that only around half of services will run, including those to and from London Waterloo, the countrys busiest railway station. Services will be cancelled, replaced by buses or finish earlier than normal, and trains that do run are expected to be busier than normal.