On Thursday, with the addition of a hole that was discovered under rail tracks, cutting off many services to London, and a signal failure on the south coast, only one in three of the trains scheduled on the emergency timetable ran near schedule on the Southern mainline and metropolitan services, with only one in six arriving at the right time. We are deeply disappointed and angry on behalf of our passengers at this stance, which will cause misery for our passengers and untold damage to the local economy in the south-east.
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In a letter to Southern chief executive Charles Horton, RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “We have had intensive talks under the auspices of Acas over the past two days and I am hoping that you will be able to authorise your team, at the reconvened talks today, to accept the following”.
THe firm says they want flexibility to run trains without a second staff member on board so passengers are kept moving.
“The offer this union is making to Southern is as agreed with Abellio Scotrail this week, an agreement that enabled us to suspend our industrial action”.
Ms Doll said: “This amounts to a continuation of the current operating model and delivers none of the punctuality and customer service benefits we are determined to deliver to our passengers”.
The RMT said the talks – facilitated by arbitration service Acas – had been “sabotaged” by the Government.
But the RMT said the company had “no serious intent” to “engage in genuine negotiations”.
“It was clear during the talks that external forces were preventing Govia from responding positively to a proposal that simply guaranteed the jobs and safety critical role of the guards in a mirror to what the union is being offered elsewhere in the industry”.
There was little indication if any progress has been made.
He was accused of “calling the shots from behind the scenes”. Some routes will have no services.
Easyjet warned its passengers travelling from Gatwick: “Southern Rail have implemented an amended timetable on Mondays to Fridays”.
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“There are no plans for further talks at the moment but the parties are aware that our services remain available to them”.
