The company said one in five conductors turned up for work yesterday, although the union maintained that support for the action was “solid”.
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Striking rail workers are to stage a protest outside the Department for Transport amid claims that the Government has put a “blockade” on talks to end a row over the role of conductors.
The train company urged passengers to check online before setting off and said that there were “no trains on some routes and no service after 6pm on others”.
The RMT told Southern last Friday that it would pull back from this week’s action if a similar deal was offered.
The five-day strike is in its second day, amid warnings from Southern’s owner Govia Thameslink Railway that the changeover from conductors to on-board supervisors “is happening”.
Asked whether Mrs May recognised the safety concerns, the spokeswoman replied: “Whether people have concerns about safety or not, the situation where trains are not operating to their normal capacity, the impact is most felt by members of the public”.
This included Scotrail guaranteeing a conductor with “full competency” on every train covered by the agreement and undertaking not to run trains without one.
“I think passengers have just got to the point where we nearly have to laugh”.
“We have it on good authority that the deal, which would have enabled us to suspend the Southern strike action this week, was sabotaged by the Government with their director of rail, Peter Wilkinson, directing operations from outside the talks”.
“This action has been forced on us by the arrogance and inaction of Govia Thameslink and the government who have made it clear that they have no interest in resolving this dispute or in tackling the daily chaos on Southern”.
On Monday, the prime minister sharply criticised RMT leaders. But Theresa May’s official spokeswoman denied the government had a responsibility to resolve the dispute, saying it had to be settled between the company and unions.
However, the talks failed as GTR said in times of disruption, there might be occasions when they would let trains run with just a driver.
Some passengers have been venting their frustrations on social media.
Southern, which runs trains from destinations such as Brighton and Gatwick Airport, has said only 60 percent of its services would operate during the week-long stoppage, the longest British rail walkout for nearly 50 years, and no trains would operate at all on some routes.
RMT union general secretary Mick Cash said: ‘It was clear right from the start of these talks that there was no serious intent from Govia Thameslink, to engage in genuine negotiations and that their script was being written from behind the scenes by their government paymasters.
He said: “We’ve all really pretty much had enough of what’s going on”.
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Meanwhile, fears that industrial action on Southern could intensify were raised last week as two other unions, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association and Aslef, announced plans to ballot station staff and drivers over plans to close ticket offices and a breakdown in industrial relations.
