A week of extreme disruption for hundreds of thousands of Southern commuters has started with a five-day strike cutting 40% of services on one of Britain’s busiest rail franchises.
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Southern is the main operator for Sussex and east Surrey regions of England, with services running to London, Kent, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire. How many other jobs would accept this kind of behaviour?
Under the new plans, the drivers will shut the doors using new technology and the conductors will take a “more customer service-based job” instead.
An emergency timetable will be put in place, with 60% of services expected to run, according to Southern.
Commuter Danyal Mustafa, 39, who works in IT and travels into central London from Carshalton, summed up many people’s frustration when he ended up rowing with RMT workers on a picket line outside Victoria station and told them “You are hurting the passengers”.
Rail passengers are warned to be aware of the planned strike action across the Southern network this week.
Three days of talks between the company and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at the conciliation service Acas collapsed.
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. Whereas the long suffering commuters are under threat of losing jobs, losing salary, losing holiday and being unable to get home to their families.
It comes after months of chaos on the trouble hit network with delays and cancellations which the company blamed on industrial action and a shortage of staff due to high levels of sickness. However, the company has stopped short of guaranteeing that trains would never run with only a driver on board. Getting rid of train guards doesn’t solve that. “We understand the reason behind this strike, especially as it is to do with passenger safety”.
Southern’s Passenger Service Director Angie Doll said: “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”.
“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 southeast”.
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“The RMT union is letting everyone down and the action they are taking this week is unnecessary, unacceptable and unjustified”, he told British broadcaster BBC. “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”.
