'Fed Up' Commuters To Protest Over Train Cuts

Commuters are to stage a demonstration today as a reduced timetable on the troubled Southern Railway franchise comes into effect.

A total of 341 trains will be cut each day for a month amid a continued shortage of staff and threat of industrial action which have caused misery for passengers for weeks.

As Southern passengers prepare to stage a protest at London's Victoria Station later, more than 12,000 people have signed a petition for the franchise to be removed from the company.

One of the organisers of the protest, Alex Prosser-Snelling, said: "We aren't people who protest normally, but everyone's fed up of the service.

"Southern mismanagement is needlessly wrecking passengers' evenings, interfering with childcare, and stressing out the workforce. Southern needs to get a grip - and if they can't or won't, the Government shouldn't let them run a railway."

Southern passengers have complained about not getting home from work to see their children because services have been so unreliable and some claim they have lost their jobs.

Southern, owned by Govia Thameslink Railway, blames high levels of staff sickness as well as industrial action by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union in a dispute over the role of conductors.

The union has offered to suspend industrial action for three months if the company pulls back from implementing the changes from 21 August.

The rail industry and the Government have offered support to Southern over its plans to switch responsibility for closing train doors from conductors to drivers.

Paul Plummer, Rail Delivery Group chief executive, said: "We're sorry when passengers are disrupted. Southern's temporary revised timetable should mean more reliable services overall and will help customers plan their journeys
better, with more certainty about which trains will run."

But Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT, said: "The axing of nearly 350 trains a day by GTR is a crisis measure designed to rig their appalling performance figures.

"The fewer trains you run, the fewer will be delayed and the better your headline performance statistics will look. That is a fix of epic proportions and the public will not be fooled by this chicanery."