Hundreds of furious passengers have demonstrated against Southern’s chaotic management.
Advertisement
Picket lines will be mounted across Southern’s network, including at London Victoria and Brighton.
Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, which is not involved in the Southern dispute, told the BBC: “We will have a digital railway some time in the future, probably not in my lifetime”.
The change is being brought about with the introduction of new trains. The company must sit down with unions and come to a resolution which respects staff and keeps passengers safe.
Trains in areas including London, East and West Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Hampshire will be affected by the walkout.
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”.
Southern, which is owned by Govia Thameslink Railway, said it will run 60 per cent of services.
The RMT’s members are certainly paying for their action, since they lose a week’s pay, but that hardly seems to have dented their resolve.
Mr Cash offered to suspend the strikes if Southern agreed to the same deal offered by ScotRail earlier this week, which had led to the union suspending industrial action in a similar dispute north of the border.
The union that has callled the strike, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), said the plan to dispense with conductors, who are now tasked with opening and shutting the train doors, would be detrimental to safety.
New contracts changing the guards’ roles are expected to take effect in a fortnight’s time.
Theresa May “strongly condemns” the strike action, Downing Street said.
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.
The Labour MP for Hove Peter Kyle said that the problems on Southern were so serious that Parliament should be recalled.
On Wednesday protesters are to march on the Department for Transport, setting off from Victoria Station at 5.30pm.
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.
The RMT union, one of Britain’s most militant, says Southern wants to extend the use of driver-only operated trains and so reduce the safety role the conductors play.
“It needs to be sorted out urgently”.
Advertisement
“The DfT must ensure passengers receive greatly improved services and appropriate compensation, to enforce franchise commitments and to agree mechanisms so performance levels do not fall to such levels again”.
