RAIL passengers are facing disruption this Christmas due to strikes with reduced services also in place.

In the latest action as part of a long-running dispute about the role of guards on trains, the RMT union will stage 24-hour strikes on the South Western Railway network on Saturday, December 22, Thursday, December 27 and Monday, December 31.

Today, there will be a reduced service between London Waterloo and Weymouth. Hourly fast trains will run between London Waterloo and Bournemouth and there will be an hourly shuttle between Bournemouth and Weymouth. There will be no stopping service between Waterloo and Poole.

On Sunday, some lines between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction (including about half of London Waterloo station) will be closed all day for bridge repairs. A reduced train service will run in and out of London Waterloo.

Then on Christmas Eve, South Western Railway will run a Saturday timetable until around 7pm. From then, a revised service will run, and many late evening trains will be cancelled or not run to their normal destinations. The stopping service to Poole will only run between Basingstoke and Poole.

South Western Railway said the network will shut down completely by about 10pm on Christmas Eve and anyone planning to travel during the evening should make sure their journey will be possible before starting out.

No trains will run on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

A Saturday timetable will run on December 27, 28, 29 and 31 with a Sunday schedule operating on December 30 and January 1.