Southern Rail bosses warn passengers to 'not attempt to travel' during strike

Staff reporter(wp/es):

Hundreds of thousands of commuters suffered massive disruption again today even before a series of strikes by Southern train drivers brings the network to a halt.

Southern passengers have been told they should “not attempt to travel” during three days of industrial action set to take place tomorrow, Wednesday and Friday.

GTR, Southern’s owners, went to the Court of Appeal today in a last ditch attempt to get the strikes called off.

It is the worst industrial dispute across the South since the three-month long signal workers strikes more than 20 years ago.

But many trains were cancelled this morning and some routes left without any service due to an on-going overtime ban by drivers.

Gatwick Express services were halved running every 30 minutes instead of 15 and were only operating between Victoria and Gatwick Airport instead of Brighton.

Southern said it was unable to run services to and from Beckenham Junction or between East Croydon and Milton Keynes Central via Kensington Olympia.

Direct services between London and either Portsmouth or Southampton were cancelled.

Disruption affected all Southern’s 10 route divisions with West London and Metro services part closed.

The company warned: “There may be further cancellations, due to day-to-day issues.”

There was also massive disruption during the morning peak on Southeastern services into London.

A major signalling problem between Hastings and Tunbridge Wells blocked the lines in both directions with buses replacing trains.

Disruption lasted until mid-morning with many commuters taking three hours or more to reach London.

GTR tried to get the strikes stopped in the High Court last week, declaring they were illegal under EU law, but lost the case.

It has now appealed against the ruling, with The Court of Appeal expected to give its decision later today.

Charles Horton, GTR chief executive of GTR, parent company of Southern said: “We have a duty to our passengers to do all we can to prevent the wholly unjustified industrial action continuing.”

Businesses will count the cost as staff fail to turn up at what, for many, is the busiest time of the year.

On strike days the only full service operating across a huge swathe of Southern England will be Thameslink and those trains are forecast to be overcrowded.

The nine month long dispute is over Southern’s changes to the role of the guard and the implementation of more driver-only (DOO) trains. 

The company says the changes will improve service, the unions say they are unsafe – claims robustly denied.

Union officials were meeting with the Office of Rail Regulation today to explain their opposition to DOO.

The whole dispute now centres on a single issue; the unions want a deal similar to that agreed with ScotRail, which also introduced staff changes and increased DOO operations.

The company agreed that all future DOO services would carry two qualified members of staff. If two members of staff are not available the train won’t run.

The unions want Southern to give the same commitment. The company, however, insists that while the “vast majority” of trains will continue to carry two members of staff in “exceptional circumstances” a train will still operate with just the driver.

The number of trains that could run with just the driver is thought to be under one per cent; but neither the unions nor the company will back down.