‘THIS STINKS of another multi-million pound taxpayer subsidy to bail out the failing Southern rail part of the Govia Thameslink franchise,’ Mick Cash general secretary of RMT said yesterday.
He was responding to Tory transport secretary Chris Grayling’s announcement of a £20 million taxpayer bail-out of Southern rail. This came as Grayling sent in a ‘hit squad’ with £20 million to spend on improvements at pinch points, such as extra staffing at key stations and quicker upgrades of worn-out tracks.
Cash added: ‘If there’s money to prop up this private outfit, why isn’t there cash available to make sure that the guards and safety are protected on their trains? If this huge chunk of money was allocated to maintaining the safety-critical role and the jobs of the train guards on the Southern services we could have avoided the strike action that has been forced on us again next week by the penny-pinching, profiteering and intransigence of Southern/GTR.’
The government bailout comes after months of strikes and a reduced service on rail routes in south London, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. RMT union members are staging a new 48-hour strike on Wednesday September 7 and Thursday September 8 as it fights moves to make drivers solely responsible for the safety of the trains.
Southern want to introduce Driver Only Operated Trains, where drivers will be responsible for opening and closing carriage doors. Presently guards operate the doors, they can check that no passengers have their clothing caught in the doors, and ensure that disabled or elderly passengers, or women with children and buggies can get off and on safely.
Some of the trains are so long that there is no way that a driver would be able to see all the way down the length of the carriages to ensure the safety of passengers getting on and off the trains.