Weymouth-Waterloo operator South Western Railway (SWR) says it is putting together plans to ensure its runs as full a timetable as possible on the next strike days.

It comes after it was announced members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will walk out on October 5 and 6, causing more disruption to passengers. These are the latest strikes in the long-running dispute over the role of guards on trains.

SWR said it was “disappointed” by the decision.

Meanwhile, the union accused SWR of refusing to engage in serious talks.

RMT members at SWR recently renewed their support for industrial action in a ballot.

Union general secretary Mick Cash said: “The company has continued to fail to provide any offer that comes close to resolving this dispute and their latest attempts at delaying talks has not gone unnoticed.

“Before the result of the re-ballot, I sent a letter to the company asking them to make the necessary arrangements for a meeting to take place.

“I never received a response from the company and they have made no attempt at trying to resolve this dispute since.

“It would appear that once again the company were riding their luck in the desperate hope that we would not be successful in another re-ballot.

“However, our members have stood rock solid and it’s down to the company to get out the bunker and get serious talks under way.

“There’s a simple solution to this dispute and it means SWR stop playing with words and negotiate the guard guarantee that reflects the best safety practice elsewhere in the industry.

“That is the package we have successfully negotiated in both Wales and Scotland and on a number of English franchises.

“It defies belief that we are being denied the same positive outcome on the South Western Railway routes.”

A South Western Railway spokesman said: “We are our extremely disappointed that yet again the RMT has decided to disrupt the lives of customers and employees rather than participate in constructive talks to help resolve this matter for their members.

“Contrary to the RMT’s claims of ‘rock-solid support’ for a mandate to strike, the fact is that when factoring in non-RMT members and those RMT members who did not vote, only around half of our total number of guards voted for strike action.

“We have offered a framework for talks which would guarantee the rostering of a second person with safety critical competencies on all our trains, and our plans mean more guards, not fewer.

“We urge the RMT to call off these unnecessary strikes which are hindering, not helping, progress on this issue.”

Check southwesternrailway.com for train time changes.