It has been a really difficult few months if you are a commuter on Southern, particularly for those travelling from Sussex. I am a daily commuter and know what pain this disruption will have caused. When I became Transport Secretary six weeks ago, I made the Southern issue my priority.
It’s true that the route is being disrupted by totally unnecessary strikes and unofficial action by unions who are opposed to the continued modernisation of the railways and desperately cling to 1970s working practices.
That’s mainly why journeys have been disrupted for months. Train guards calling in sick in unprecedented numbers and at very short notice as part of what is clearly an organised attempt to disrupt – and that’s on the days without strikes. Southern’s parent company and the unions need to reach an agreement soon so their passengers can travel on time.
But this is also a railway that needs improving and upgrading and we have started that long term project already. The opening of much of the newly rebuilt London Bridge station this week is one example – turning a cramped and congested station into a terminus fit for this century.
However, this doesn’t solve today’s problems. The Brighton mainline is operating at capacity, carrying twice as many passengers and far more trains than twenty years ago. Even a little problem causes massive disruption.
I have concluded urgent changes are needed. Currently, GTR, the train operating company, runs the trains, and Network Rail runs the tracks and signals. The tendency is for those involved to blame each other for problems and not work together to sort them out quickly. That must change now.
I want the Southern network run by one, integrated team of people working together to ensure passengers get decent journeys and problems are solved quickly. So I am establishing a Project Board, headed by a vastly experienced rail executive, to urgently plan how to create this team. This is not about big corporate reorganisation or changes of ownership. That would waste time better spent improving this railway. It’s about a joined up approach to running the train and the tracks and making things work better. I want that plan in place by the early autumn and implemented as quickly as possible.
But we will also target those daily minor problems that cause delays. A £20m programme will help replace equipment likely to fail and renew the most problematic stretches of track. It will double the number of rapid response teams to solve problems and increase staff on the busiest platforms to get passengers and trains away on time.
And in autumn, older trains will be phased out with new twelve coach trains on the Brighton mainline while newer trains will replace the oldest stock elsewhere.
I can’t promise to solve the problems overnight. But by creating a new joined up team, phasing out old trains and stepping up work on the things most likely to go wrong, we can get this railway into better shape.
But we won’t get the service back to normal until the unions put the passengers first. Like every train built in Europe today, our newest trains are managed by CCTV from the driver’s cab. We cannot avoid using state of the art train systems just because the unions object. No guard is losing their job or having their pay cut. There is no reason to strike. I want to reshape this railway so it puts passengers first. So should they.
Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP
Secretary of State for Transport
MP for Epsom and Ewell