Industrial Relations
The RMT has announced further strike action in December over the Christmas and New Year period; in addition to the 17 days of strike action taken to date with 11 more to go this year.
- 22nd – 23rd November
- 6th – 8th December
- 22nd – 24th December
- 31st December – 2nd January
GTR have confirmed that 220 conductors – 99 per cent – have signed up to the new On-Board Supervisor (OBS) role and will now take up the new role in January, which focuses exclusively on customer service and moves the operation of closing doors to the driver. A further 222 people will remain in their existing roles as conductors on certain Southern services.
They will be also recruiting a further 100 people to work OBS roles across Southern and Gatwick Express services and an advertising campaign has been launched.
The impact of future RMT strikes will reduce as the process of giving drivers full operational control of trains is completed. OBSs can work more flexibly, GTR are now recruiting more of them and if one is not available at short notice, they can run a train without one being available.
I was also desperately disappointed to hear that Southern Rail drivers are to stage a series of strikes in the run-up to Christmas, after members of the Aslef union voted for industrial action. They will walkout for 48 hours from December 13, for 24 hours on the 16th and between January 9 and 14.
You can find attached below Charles Horton's letter regarding Aslef's strike action.
Meeting with the Transport Secretary
At a recent meeting between the Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, my Sussex colleagues and me, we discussed the Government's plans to allow rail passengers to claim compensation if their train is more than 15 minutes late under an improved compensation scheme.
Whilst the Government have committed to introducing ‘Delay Repay 15’ within months on Govia Thameslink Railway services, including Southern, we implored the Transport Secretary to speed up the introduction as quickly as possible.
Once introduced, passengers will be able to claim 25% of the cost of the single fare for delays between 15 and 29 minutes. The existing compensation thresholds will apply for delays from 30 minutes with passengers able to apply for compensation through the train operating company.
We also spoke about the annual fare increase. Any fare increase at this stage would be completely unacceptable for embattled and long-suffering Southern passengers, many of whom live and commute from my constituency. Along with colleagues, I have been urging the Secretary of State to make special provision and freeze fares at the very least since these announcements and preferable announce rebate especially for renewing season ticket holders.
Passengers have been suffering through delays, cancellations, station skipping, poor customer service and overcrowding on a daily basis for months. Whilst GTR's recent reduced timetable and RMT's official and unofficial strike action have worsened the situation. The situation is appalling for passengers and they read that they will be being paying more for their journeys.
Any increase at this time would be adding insult to injury. Consequently, we asked that ticket prices for GTR customers be at the very least frozen, until normal service resumes. I have previously called for season ticket holders to be offered substantial discounts when they renew their tickets given the significantly reduced and unreliable service they have had to suffer over many months. The normal compensation scheme goes only a little way in recompensing their inconvenience, if available at all.
I hope the Government will heed our calls.