Hundreds of thousands of rail passengers are facing cancellations, delays and packed trains as South Western Railway staff begin a 27-day strike from today.
Bracing for weeks of misery, commuters reacted angrily as they set out on the first of many disrupted journeys to find out that their service was more than 10 minutes late.
A revised timetable is in place as RMT union members stage one of the longest strikes in British railway history due to a long-running dispute over guards on trains.
A passenger wrote on Twitter: "@SW_Help, you've cancelled the ONLY train into London from Gillingham before 08:00. Normally a train is run every 30mins to London from 05:00.
"How on earth is this acceptable? Still it's okay as I've already paid you 1/12 of £7152 for this month's service."
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A Twitter user, whose partner's train was delayed, wrote: "Really feel sorry for anyone commuting on South Western Trains today.
"Half service due to strikes means many of you will be left on the platforms, and those that are running are delayed because of them trying to cram everyone on."
Another commuter wrote: "Dear @SW_Help , I cannot believe that on a #SWRstrike day when there only 2 trains from my station in the peak hour against the normal 6, you have *shortened* train length by a third. Please have some thought for your passengers."
Passengers told how platforms were packed and it was "standing room only" on trains.
One tweeted: "Platform absolutely rammed already at Surbiton, @SW_Help you’re a joke."
Another: "Good luck everyone this morning. Standing room only on the 6.43 from Weybridge."
Commuters also told how the strike had filled them with dread as they called for the job action to come to an end.
One tweeted: "Really not looking forward to commuting this month."
Another wrote: "Get back to the table with @RMTunion and get this fiasco sorted. Give staff the reassurance they won't lose their jobs."
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union on South Western Railway (SWR) will walk out for 27 days from today until New Year's Day – the longest stretch of action against a major rail operator in living memory.
Passengers have been warned only around half of services will run, including those to and from London Waterloo, the country's busiest railway station.
Services will be cancelled, replaced by buses or finish earlier than normal, while trains that do run are expected to be busier than normal.
Talks between the two sides collapsed last week, with the union and company blaming each other for the failure to reach a deal.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT is angry and frustrated that a set of proposals that would have guaranteed the safety critical role of the guard at the point of despatch, and which would have cost the company absolutely nothing, have been kicked back in our faces.
"There is no rational explanation for the company position and we can only assume that either they or their paymasters in Government want this strike action to go ahead for politically motivated purposes.
"The union also believes that cutting the guard out of the despatch process reduces the second person on the train to little more than a passenger in the longer term, which would give the company the option of axing them all together at some point down the line.
"Both the union and the travelling public are being set up – and that stinks."
He added: "Our action goes ahead from Monday in defence of passenger safety and accessibility, and the blame for that lies wholly with SWR and their wrecking strategy.
"The union remains available for talks and we have a deal to solve this dispute which is cost free for SWR worked up and ready to go.
"The company should grab it with both hands and avoid the disruption to services their actions will unleash."
An SWR spokesman said: "We have done everything we can and more to meet the RMT's outdated demands with our promise of a guard on every train and a safety critical role for that guard.
"What we are not prepared to compromise on is the much-needed modernisation of the service with improved performance, safety and customer service that our new fleet of modern suburban trains will vitally deliver for customers.
"We know our passengers will welcome over 10 million more passenger journeys a year arriving on time and this much-needed improvement to our service is too important to compromise."
He added: "Throughout negotiations we have tried repeatedly to find ways to meet the RMT's aspirations.
"However, every time we find a way forward on one point the union has moved the goalposts by changing its position.
"They said at the outset this was about keeping the guard on the train, that is exactly what we have offered.
"They said they wanted a safety critical role for that guard, that is what we have offered.
"Unfortunately, it is clear to us that the RMT is unclear on what this dispute is about and intent on striking no matter what.
"We know the impact these RMT strikes will have on our passengers and we want to be clear that we have done everything we can to try to avert the strikes and meet RMT's antiquated and changing demands."
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