SOUTHERN is set to cut the number of services it operates in a bid to improve reliability. The RMT says it has learned that the changes will remove 350 trains a day from the timetable.
The operator, which is part of Govia Thameslink Railway, is embroiled in long-running industrial disputes over plans to convert most services to driver-only operation, although a second member of staff would usually be carried as well in a supervisory role. However, their duties would not include opening and closing the doors or dispatching the train.
Services have been frequently disrupted by high levels of conductor sickness, as well as periodic strikes, and the problems have triggered a large number of complaints.
Southern managers told a public meeting on Saturday that they would be publishing a revised timetable tomorrow which would come into force on 11 July. There will be fewer trains on some routes, but it is hoped that they will be more predictable.
GTR chief operating office Dyan Crowther said: "We're doing that to match the number of staff that we have to the timetable. It's really, really important we accept that what we have not been able to do is to provide customer certainty. By putting in an amended timetable that's what we're going to be able to do."
MPs in the area have also become involved. The member for Hove, Peter Kyle, said unreliable train services were now putting jobs at risk.
Last week he told the Commons: "This shambles is turning into a crisis. I have people writing to me who are late for work every day and getting written warnings from their bosses. The Government seem to expect them to turn to their bosses and say, 'Don’t worry. By 2018, it will all be fine'. When will this shambles and crisis end? When can people tell their bosses that things will get better?"
A Remedial Plan drawn up in February by Govia and the DfT, which was published at the end of May in a redacted version, allows greater numbers of cancellations before the operator would be in breach of its franchise contract, a change which is being bitterly criticised by the RMT.
The union's general secretary Mick Cash said: "This latest savage attack on passenger services by GTR is nothing to do with staff sickness and everything to do with gross mismanagement of this franchise and the failure to employ enough guards and drivers to fill the current rosters and diagrams. The continuing attempt to blame the front line workforce for this crisis is a cynical and cowardly ploy that will not wash with the travelling public.
"The solution of this failing, basket-case franchise is not axing more trains and attacking those trying to hold it together at the sharp end -- it is the removal of Govia at the earliest possible point."