Campaign news

Southern Rail Chaos

13th December 2016

Southern Rail Chaos

By Mick Brooks

There seems to be a competition among Tory cabinet ministers as to which one can be the most unpopular with the public. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is definitely in the running.

The current strike on Southern Rail is a classic case of his malign neglect. Grayling has been muttering about making strikes on the railways illegal. But even he has been forced to admit that the problems on Southern predate the present industrial dispute by a long chalk.

The fact is that the Tory award of the franchise to Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has been a disaster from the outset. The longsuffering passengers in the area have been subjected to years of pathetic excuses, such as ‘no crews available’, and a reduced timetable to account for the failures of the franchise holders.

More than 33% of Southern’s trains are delayed compared with less than 15% in other regions.

Southern has trivialised the present dispute, arguing it is about whether drivers or guards should be responsible for closing the doors. In fact it is about passenger safety.

One solution to the mess created by Southern is to hand over suburban rail services to the London Mayor.  Sadiq Khan is sure he could do better than GTR. He could hardly do worse. His proposal is entirely logical, as all these train operating companies are basically funnelling commuters into London, so the service could be better integrated and planned overall.

In 2013 Grayling wrote a letter to the then London Mayor Boris Johnson, saying he opposed the proposal to keep it “out of the clutches of any future Labour Mayor”. Sadiq has replied mildly to this revelation, pointing out that the welfare of passengers is “far, far more important than playing party politics.” Even Tory MP Bob Neill, under pressure from his constituents, has called for Grayling’s resignation, calling him “unfit for office.”

With regard to the present dispute, Aslef official Graham Morris told the Press Association: “Southern is deliberately sabotaging the service to strengthen its argument in court on Monday by suggesting that Aslef is responsible for the cancellations. “Drivers and other crew were sitting around in Eastbourne this morning available to work.”

Aslef named the cancellation times, and added: “There is a crew room full of frustrated drivers and guards who are puzzled as to why the company would create this disruption and blame it on us,”

Grayling’s latest brainwave is to break up Network Rail’s tracks and award them to the train operating companies, in effect privatising the system. A history lesson may be in order here. When the Tories began the privatisation of British Rail in 1994, they split it up into train operating companies and a private company called Railtrack.

Anxious to maximise profits, Railtrack allowed British Rail’s engineering expertise to dissipate. One result was a series of fatal crashes: Southall in 1997; Ladbroke Grove in 1999; Hatfield in 2000; Potters Bar in 2002. Thank you very much, John Major, Tory Prime Minister responsible for the privatisation!
Added to these accidents were catastrophic cost overruns on upgrading the West Coast Main Line route. Together this meant that Railtrack was forced into liquidation and Network Rail took over its functions. It is in effect publicly owned.

The idea of handing over Network Rail’s functions to the likes of GTR is almost laughable. Even the ‘Sun’ has argued today (December 13th) that GTR should be stripped of its franchise altogether. We pay these people to screw up.

How much has all this cost us? Action for Rail reports:  “In 2013–14, the government contributed £3.8bn to the UK rail industry.

The top five recipients of public subsidy alone received almost £3bn in taxpayer support between 2007 and 2011. This allowed them to make operating profits of £504m – over 90 per cent (£466m) of which was paid to shareholders.”

(http://actionforrail.org/the-four-big-myths-of-uk-rail-privatisation/)

The case for the renationalisation of the railways is overwhelming.