Workers on South Western Railway are to stage a fresh strike in the long running dispute over the role of guards on trains.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will walk out on October 5 and 6, causing more disruption to passengers on routes including to and from London Waterloo.

The union accused the company of refusing to engage in serious talks to resolve the bitter row.

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.”