Commuters are set for a week of travel chaos from today after negotiations to avert a five-day strike by Southern Rail staff broke down.
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RMT members formed picket lines at rail depots and others were expected later at London Victoria and Brighton.
If the strike does go ahead, the operator will run at 60 per cent of service.
Trains across London, East and West Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Hampshire are affected by the strike, which started this morning.
Three days of talks between the company and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at the conciliation service Acas collapsed.
She also expressed Southern’s anger that the negotiations had failed, saying: “We have gone the extra mile with our compromise offer, but the RMT has made it clear they are not prepared to negotiate”.
In a message to passengers, he said: “We want to run new and modern trains to provide more space and capacity and we want to make essential changes to how we operate, including giving our drivers responsibility for closing train doors so that onboard staff can focus on helping you during your journey”.
Two other rail unions are balloting for industrial action – the TSSA over ticket office closures and the drivers’ union Aslef over claims of a breakdown in industrial relations.
“I am wondering if this is an opportunity for (Transport Secretary) Chris Grayling to get involved”.
“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”.
The union has called the five-day strike from Monday if the deadlocked row is not resolved.
Mick Cash, the union’s general secretary, said: “The person running this circus wasn’t even in the room and we now know from well-placed industry sources that it was Peter Wilkinson – the man who boasted that we was itching for a punch up with the unions”.
Ministers have slammed the strike as doing “devastating” harm to passengers and “needless pain” to the economy as an estimated 300,000 commuters face a battle to get to work.
Talks between RMT and Southern’s operator Govia Thameslink (GTR) came to nothing on Friday when the rail operator refused to suspend the strike.
At present, it is the role of conductors – but Southern Rail wants it to become the job of drivers, arguing it will result in faster and more punctual services and will not threaten any jobs or pay.
They say the disruption next week lies at the “door of the Government” and “Southern rail contractors”.
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“And there will be fewer train cancellations in future: now, conductors are tied to specific routes and services, but the new on-board supervisor will be able to go anywhere on our network, significantly reducing the perennial problem of train cancellations due to conductors not being available when they’re delayed by disruption, for example”.
