A train company has announced it will reinstate up to 119 train services from next week.

Southern Railway has said more than a third of the 341 trains cancelled on July 11 as part of a temporary timetable, introduced following unprecedented sickness levels, will be restored from Monday September 5 to inner London services.

On the West London Line 26 services will now operate, some as far as Milton Keynes, where, currently just eight services have been running between Clapham and Watford Junction only.

Charles Horton, GTR’s Chief Executive, said: “We know how difficult life has been for our passengers recently and we are sincerely sorry. Our aim has been to bring back as much of the timetable as quickly as we could and for several weeks we have had September 5 as our target to begin the reinstatement of trains.

"We are pleased that we can restore a large chunk of our train timetable for our passengers on this date but we will not be satisfied until the full timetable is running, and running in a punctual way people can rely on.

“But with another RMT strike called for next week, passengers will be dismayed and angry, as we are, that the union has called yet further cynically-orchestrated action to try and scupper this improved service, and cause maximum disruption, damage and delay in the very week when many people go back to work and back to school after the summer break.

"But we will not be thwarted in our determination to give passengers their trains back. In the face of an intransigent RMT leadership, we are doing all we can to get our passengers back on track.

“The updated timetable will allow us to run a more comprehensive rush hour service with virtually a full peak service at London Bridge and 95 per cent of peak train capacity at Victoria.

"We will continue to add services incrementally and we are aiming at restoring the full timetable in the coming weeks.

"However, while we will do all we can to restore the services, we are faced with an unparalleled wave of strikes, unjustified industrial disputes and abnormal levels of train crew sickness.

"We are also part of a live railway network which can result, however much we don't want them, in unexpected incidents which do cause short notice cancellations and disruption.

"This is the start of the journey to restore the full timetable. It will take time to complete, but passengers can be assured it is now underway.”

Southern Railway has also confirmed it will bring back the remaining train services to its timetable in the coming weeks.

The restored rail services, which will boost Southern and Gatwick Express services to 91 per cent of its normal timetable from 84 per cent when the temporary timetable was introduced, are available in online journey planners.

Southern says that information on services during the RMT strike action on Wednesday and Thursday, September 7 and 8 will be announced in due course.