I am very concerned about the disruption caused to constituents by the poor service on parts of Southern Rail’s network. On 4th July I attended a cross party meeting, organised by my colleague Tim Loughton, Member of Parliament for East Worthing and Shoreham, with the RMT union, including Mick Cash, General Secretary of RMT, to try and understand the reasons behind the ongoing industrial action.
Disappointingly, RMT did not provide a plan about how the dispute with Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) could be settled, as they had indicated they would. There appears to be little substance to their remaining points, as the discussion largely focused on the small amount of trains, only 2.75%, that are travelling without On Board Supervisors, since the Driver Only Operation system was introduced in January 2017.
I also attended the House of Commons debate on 4th July to consider the ‘Chris Gibb Report: Improvements to Southern Railway’, which was commissioned by Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport, to provide advice to the Department about how to deliver improvements to train services across the GTR franchise. I enclose a link to the report, in case you are interested in reading it in full (below)
The Government has decided to proceed with 34 of the 38 recommendations in the report, and work is already underway to deliver them. For example, in early January, the Government committed an extra £300 million to improve infrastructure resilience on the Southern network.
As you may be aware, in June ASLEF turned down a 23.8% pay increase, over four years, for Southern drivers without putting the offer to their members. This would have taken Southern drivers basic pay up to £60,683 for a four-day, 35- hour week. The very same offer that they accepted for their Thameslink drivers.
On 18th July, my fellow West Sussex MPs and I, met with ASLEF, to try and press for some resolution. The union advised that their drivers no longer want to work overtime. They also informed us that they had not met with the Secretary of State for Transport. After our meeting it transpired that the Secretary of State had written to the unions 8 times in the last 6 months to offer face to face talks.
It is encouraging that the unions have now suspended the planned industrial action in August, which has been causing the recent disruption to passengers, and that ASLEF met with the Secretary of State for Transport on 20th July. An invitation remains open to RMT. I trust this will help to reopen the negotiations between the unions and Southern.
Please be assured I will continue to give this matter my close attention, and do all I can to bring an end to the unnecessary disruption for my constituents.