Chris Gibb's independent report to the Department for Transport on the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) Franchise has been published and can be read here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/southern-rail-network-gibb-report
The report outlines:
- outlines issues affecting performance on the Southern Rail network
- advises on how to deliver improvements to train services across the GTR franchise
Appendix 9 is not included in the published report as it contains commercially sensitive information.
You can read the Government's response to the report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/gibb-report-on-southern-rail-network-government-response
Tim's response:
It is unfortunate that Chris Gibb’s report was not published earlier and was then delayed due to the general election intervening. However I am relieved that it has now been released in full countering many conspiracy theories that have been doing the rounds. The report gives a thorough overview of all the problems that have been undermining the performance of Southern Rail and making the lives of my commuting constituents a misery for far too long. It also gives a comprehensive analysis of the challenges ahead and suggestions to how these can be best tackled.
As I have stated all along, nobody comes out of this long running episode well, be it the Department for Transport, GTR’s management or the trade unions. However, to be clear, Chris Gibb states categorically that the major part of the disruption should be attributed to the ongoing and unreasonable industrial action by the RMT and ASLEF which has been calculated to cause maximum disruption to the train travelling public who are just trying to go about their everyday lives. It seems more nonsensical than ever that both the RMT and ASLEF are continuing with their dispute when driver only operated door protocols have been working without incident since the beginning of the year on the line let alone across the country over the past several decades. A number of additional safety considerations have already been offered to the unions and I would also repeat my call that a new performance indicator should be added to assess how many exceptional circumstances mean that the second member of staff on the train, which is part of the deal, cannot be on board when the train departs.
Clearly the way ahead is for the unions to bring their dispute to an end, not least in light of the very generous pay increases of 24% and increases in drivers basic pay (before overtime and their final salary pension) to in excess of £60,000 a year by GTR. As soon as the industrial dispute is settled the Secretary of State for Transport needs to set in and review the GTR franchise which has clearly not been fit for purpose since the start and which GTR have been incapable of managing. I will be continuing to work with my parliamentary colleagues from across all parties within the Southern region and to that end I have invited representative from RMT and ASLEF to come to Parliament to discuss.