As Southern Rail and the unions lock horns, passengers are left to suffer

Anger: A protester against Southern Rail at Victoria station
Nigel Howard
Will Gore12 July 2016
WEST END FINAL

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The life of a commuter is one of compromises. We move out of town to take advantage of cheaper property but spend more on travel. We have the countryside close by but can no longer wander into the West End. We have more space for our families but can’t see them when we get delayed on the way home.

When I moved from Clapham to Hertfordshire eight years ago, I knew what I was getting into. And for the most part, the sacrifices have been worth it. The clean Chiltern air, abundant greenness and general sense of calm are certainly not losing their appeal.

True, I have spent the equivalent of many weeks of my life sitting on stuffy trains, not to mention paying £445 a month for the privilege. But I live far enough outside the capital to get a seat most days and I usually only have to stand for part of the return journey. Thanks to Southern’s Milton Keynes to Clapham Junction service, I don’t even have to get a Tube connection. Instead, I enjoy a 15-minute walk down the hill to Berkhamsted station, a 40-minute journey by rail to Kensington Olympia, then another gentle stroll to the office.

At least, I did. Until this week, when Southern simply scrapped the route.

When I first heard that the service was to be suspended I assumed I had misunderstood. The route was well-used, after all. Indeed, last year the number of carriages on peak-hour services was increased to ease over-crowding.

Fury: Commuters stage a protest at Victoria
Nigel Howard

Yet the well-publicised dispute between Southern’s parent firm, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), and the RMT over the introduction of driver-operated doors has taken its toll. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the proposals, a combination of official industrial action and high levels of staff sickness have caused huge disruption in recent months. Delays and short-notice cancellations have rocketed.

So in order to ensure a “more reliable” service, GTR will run 341 fewer trains a day for the “foreseeable future”. It is a paradoxical approach that students of logic will surely delight over for years to come. Students of transport, meanwhile, will confirm that railway reliability tends to be measured by an ability to get from A to B, not on the certainty of locomotive absence.

Angry: Commuters at Victoria station
Nigel Howard

Between May 29 and June 25, more than 15 per cent of GTR services were cancelled or significantly late, according to Network Rail. The introduction of a modified timetable will presumably ease those grim statistics — but at what cost? Trains which do run will be busier than ever. And many commuters will have to completely rethink their daily travel plans. For my part, I now have to take the mainline into Euston, then three Tube journeys to get to work.

Management and the unions will doubtless each blame the other for this mess. But as usual it is ordinary passengers who are at the sharp end. Hard though it may be for rail operators to believe, most people don’t feel they’re getting better value for money by travelling on more trains.

Commuters are a long-suffering crowd but for many Southern customers it seems that the introduction of a reduced timetable is the final straw. Many are feeling sufficiently angry to organise protests against GTR’s operations. Indeed, I’d join them with their placards and the ir chants — but unfortunately my train’s been cancelled.

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