Commuters stage protest after Southern rail cuts 340 trains from timetable

Commuters angered by delays to their train journeys today staged a demonstration at Victoria Station.

More than 100 disgruntled rail users took to the concourse of the central London train station to protest after months of chaos caused by frequent cancellations by Southern Railway.

Brandishing placards reading "We Pay You Delay" and "Ban The Fat Controller", the protesters chanted "Southern Fail" through a megaphone.

Commuters are facing serious disruptions in and out of London after a train company, which the Government is supporting, said unhappy staff were to blame for it cancelling 340 trains daily.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which won the Southern rail network a year ago, has removed 15 per cent of its trains - 341 daily - in an "emergency timetable" set to last at least least four weeks.

The company says reduced services on trains to Victoria Station and London Bridge, as well as the Gatwick Express and trains between Brighton and Southampton and other routes, are the result of staff striking and calling in sick.

A row has exploded between the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) - of which Bob Crow used to be general secretary - and GTR over plans to remove the door-closing duties of guards and hand them a purely customer service-based role inside the trains. Drivers will use new technology to close the doors themselves from their cabins.

The move to change the role of guards - which the Government says will involve no job losses - is a "cover-up" for gradual staff reductions, a spokesperson at RMT has said. Workers are being blamed for long-standing poor performance by the company, they told The Independent.

"The argument that delays and cancellations that plague Thameslink is due to staff sickness is a complete lie," the RMT spokesperson said.

"It is not factually correct. They haven't recruited enough drivers and guards. The problem of delays has been going on way before industrial action, when new rosters were brought in.

"They've told the public that this is down to the staff, and not down to their handling of the situation. Our staff are getting spat on and verbally abused by customers as a result."

In September last year, Southern had the worst punctuality record of all train operators in the country and recent figures show it remains poor compared to other providers. GTR acquired it in July and has said ongoing delays and difficulties have been worsened by construction at London Bridge.

Services have become so poor that the Transport Select Committee is listening to the case, 500 members staff have been in three strikes since April this year, and an MP has written a blistering letter to GTR's CEO to demand a resolution to the crisis.

A GTR spokesperson told The Independent that trains were being cancelled because guards were not arriving to work, but admitted there were also infrastructural problems on the "congested" Southern network.

"We are having to cancel hundreds of trains per day because of a lack of train crew availability and a reluctance to work overtime," a GTR spokesperson said.

"We've removed these trains because it allows passengers to plan better, rather than just turning up and hoping the train would run and on time.

"And we're not getting rid of guards, there will be just as many onboard hosts. The reason for doing it is it allows us to be much more flexible in how we use them."

The company has said no salaries will be cut and no jobs lost. The Department for Transport has called the strikes "wholly injustified."

Claire Perry, the rail minister, said: "I want to reassure staff that a busy, growing and successful railway will need more people, not fewer, to help passengers in future. The jobs those people do will be skilled and not dumbed down or contracted out."

"We don't believe anything they say," the RMT spokesperson added to The Independent. They added they knew there would be no forced redundancies.

Sam Gyimah, Conservative MP for East Surrey, wrote a critical letter to Thameslink CEO Charles Horton, whose salary is £2.4 million, to say "both sides were at fault" on July 5.

"Simply removing the train from a timetable does nothing to improve matters," he said.

"It simply serves to inflame the righteous indignation of your customers who are no longer eligible for compensation."

Between 84 and 92 per cent of the trains now being run by GTR are reportedly running to time, indicating there are still delays to some services.

The union has called on the Government to stop "promoting privatisation" and to hand the Southern network over to Directly Operated Railways Ltd, - a publicly owned company funded by the Department for Transport designed to take over failing franchises.