Scores of people protested tonight, demanding that Govia be stripped of its franchise – but many were late because of delayed and cancelled trains.
Angry commuters waved placards and chanted “Southern out!” on the concourse, as security guards and British Transport Police officers looked on.
At one point, the crowd was interrupted by an announcement that a train had been cancelled, prompting them to boo, as this video by Snowy Brighton shows:
#southernfail @brightonstation @Southern_Trains @SouthernRailOK #Omnishambles #charleshortonmustresign pic.twitter.com/KqglZsPS6L
— Snowy Brighton (@SnowyBrighton) June 14, 2016
Just a couple of hours before, the RMT had announced it was holding another 24 hour strike on Tuesday – although many commented that given weeks of cancellations because of staff shortages, they wouldn’t see much difference.
The rail shambles has blown up over a row between the union and Govia over changes to the guard role and driver-only trains.
Yes…and they have started suspending staff and threatening them with the sack if they dare to make any comments on social media too. This company no longer deserves a loyal staff or to hang onto the franchise.
I used to work for the company until a little over 10 years ago. Thank god I don’t work for them anymore!
Great work by the protesters, we need the conductors to keep us safe and the real shame is the poor management of Southern. Until recently they’d always been good to travel with and it makes their current behaviour very odd as they could be a great company and the current managers are hand bagging their own company, time to go lads!
Just to let you guys know, they were not late for their protest! If anything they were early!
By the time I got there, it was all over. Why? Because the 17:57 out of London Bridge was cancelled AGAIN. It’s a shambles. The franchise has to go. It is making our lives a misery!
Sorry Jamie that’s nonsense – and I have the pictures of the arrivals boards to show you. Please stop trying to paper over the cracks and accept that Govia is not fit for purpose.
Hello fuming, I think Jamie’s point was that the people organising the protest were there early, not that there weren’t lots of delays and cancellations which meant a lot of people turned up late.
Govia couldn’t run a drink up at the local brewery. The service is appalling. The managers should hold their heads in shame. We pay a lot of money for this “service” and it is not worth it. If I could park for a sensible price I would give up the trains and drive to work !
The protesters have every right to be frustrated, the service really is dire, but they need to understand that it is the government that’s making these problems.
GTR’s contract requires them to cut costs by getting rid of guards and station staff. This has been publicly-available information since the when the plans were drawn up, but was not widely reported in the mainstream press. As punishment for striking, GTR have banned staff from working overtime, which has affected the service because it’s so poorly staffed that it needs people doing overtime to make it work! GTR are then blaming the staff, implying that they’re pulling sickies! Both staff morale and service reliability have plummted, but the Department for Transport are allowing this to happen because they want the “surplus” staff gone. Once the guards have been fired, you can be sure that the government will suddenly pipe up with “We have carefully listened to your concerns and will take action blahblahblah”. The whole thing is cynical and it stinks, quite frankly.
Govia’s handling of the situation aside, replacing them with another operator will not change the outcome. By the time the government takes any action, it will have been too late. My thoughts go out to the staff and passengers who will lose out because of the government’s policy.
Same problems on Great Northern (also Govia) For years First Capital Connect got us to and from London even in bad weather conditions, since Govia came along there are delays and cancellations nearly every day, it’s a sham and disruptive to thousands of peoples lives.
Well the CEO David Brown happily receives a £2million salary for presiding over this mess. Really shocking and shows how privatization has cost the commuters millions and lined the pockets of directors and shareholders.