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OPINION ... Rail transport ... The Southern scandal has gone on long enough. GTR must lose its contract

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Rail transport ... Opinion ... The Southern scandal has gone on long enough. GTR must lose its contract

The mismanagement of rail services by Govia Thameslink Railway is a national disgrace – and staff are taking the blame. The government must take action

Commuters protest against Southern Railway at Victoria station, London, July 2016

‘Passenger anger is boiling over.’ Commuters protest against Southern Railway at Victoria station, London, July 2016. Photograph: Lauren Hurley/PA

The gross mismanagement of Britain’s biggest rail franchise by Govia Thameslink Railway has broken out from being a local story to a national issue covered in depth by all sections of the media. That is a welcome breakthrough for a crisis that tells us everything we need to know about the privatisation of Britain’s railways.

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My union, RMT, is involved in a dispute with just one part of the franchise, Southern Railway, over the safety-critical role of train guards and the very future of our members. There has been a total of four days of strike action since earlier in the year. That dispute remains live and we are determined to stop the watering-down of the safety culture on the railway in the name of profit.

It is shameful that GTR has attempted to heap the blame for its daily corporate failures on the front-line staff engaged in that fight for jobs and safety. Even when there is no strike action, the company has played fast and loose with the truth, creating the myth of a “sick-note strike” that simply doesn’t exist.

Let us be clear: the laws on industrial action in this country are tighter than a straitjacket. Any union that organised illegal, unofficial action would be dragged into court like a shot. There is no “sick-note strike”; there is no “unofficial action”. What there is is a total and abject failure by GTR to recruit enough staff to fill rosters.

It can only be ideology that is blocking the way for the removal of Govia Thameslink

That problem is compounded by a chronic shortage of rolling stock. This week – less than a fortnight since Southern introduced an “emergency” timetable that axed 341 services a day – there have been short formations across both Southern and Thameslink services. Short formations are when the normal length of the train is cut. On Britain’s rammed-out railways, that means an eight- or 10-car set cut to four carriages, leaving passengers just a few stops up the line unable to get on board. In this week’s heatwave the conditions on those trains have been horrific.

Get this: there is a barrage of regulations for the transportation of cattle in terms of space, conditions and temperature, and rightly so. But no such regulations apply to human passengers, regardless of the fact that commuters are paying £5,000 a year and more for their daily journey. They are a captive market effectively held hostage by the rail company with the connivance of the government.

Last week the rail minister Claire Perry, resigned and slunk off back to Devizes, after one of the most abject Commons performances ever in the debate on Govia Thameslink. The new transport secretary, Chris Grayling, and the rest of the new transport team, have said little or nothing about the scandal of Govia Thameslink. They need to get their act together sharpish. Technically, GTR doesn’t have a franchise; it has a management contract with the DfT in charge and all the risk carried by the taxpayer. The notion that the government can’t take action to sling Govia out is just nonsense. The stories you need to read, in one handy email Read more

When a rail franchise or contract is let, it is a legal requirement that there must be a certificated public-sector alternative ready to pick up the pieces if it all falls apart. It is called Directly Operated Railways and it was that outfit that stepped in when National Express threw back the keys on the east coast mainline. Not only did DOR step in, but it turned a failing franchise into one of the best in the country in terms of reliability and satisfaction and handed back hundreds of millions of pounds to the public purse in the process.

So why the government reticence on GTR? This rail operator has managed to turn the premium Gatwick Express service from one of the top performers on the network into a global laughing stock, with an “on-time” statistic of less than 25% – and that’s for passengers paying top whack to try to make their flights on time. It is truly shocking.

It can only be ideology that is blocking the way for the removal of Govia Thameslink, and people are having their lives wrecked and losing their jobs because of it. It is no wonder that passenger anger is boiling over, but it isn’t the top brass of the company taking the heat on the trains and the platforms as the service hits meltdown – it is RMT members in their company uniforms.

Govia Thameslink has declared war on its passengers and its staff alike. We have a common cause with the travelling public in sorting this shambles out and in protecting services and safety. RMT has been delighted with the level of public support for the rail staff caught up in the middle of this crisis – they know we are on the same side. It is now down to the government to act, strip GTR of its contract, bring in Directly Operated Railways and end this scandal that shames our country’s transport services.