Southern Rail Thanks Passengers for Patience

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Service back to normal today after Tuesday's strike

Southern Rail has thanked passengers fo their patience during Tuesday's 24 hour strike by members of the RMT Union.

Southern's announcement on its website adds: " No further strikes have been announced at this stage. We aim to run a normal service today however Southern services are still being affected by limited train crew availability which may lead to disruption on some routes.

" For further details and compensation information please visit our RMT strike page."

Services affected by this industrial action included Southern's trains running between Clapham Junction and Milton Keynes, taking in Imperial Wharf, West Brompton, Olympia and Shepherd's Bush, alongside the London Overground service.

The service normally runs three or four trains during rush hours and one per hour at other times and continues from Shepherd's Bush to Wembley Central, Harrow and Wealdstone then on to Watford Junction and Milton Keynes Central.

This strike - the fourth this year -by guards belonging to the RMT rail union was due to a dispute over the role of guards on new 12 carriage trains, where drivers would be responsile for closing doors and seeing the train off from stations will then rest with the driver.

Conductors would instead have an on-board role helping passengers. However, the RMT union believes this would be unsafe and say the change is unwanted by customers.

Standing on a picket line yesterday, RMT eneral Secretary Mick Cash described support from members for the industrial action as "rock solid" and said: " The union knows that when Southern talks about 'changing the role of the guard' what they really mean is getting rid of the guard. We have no option but to strike to stop that lethal gamble being bulldozed through.

" We regret the inconvenience to passengers but our fight for jobs today is about protecting your safety tomorrow. "

 

June 22, 2016