One of Britain’s biggest rail networks will be shut down for the third time in four days tomorrow after talks to resolve a strike collapsed without agreement.
Southern Rail will be shut on Friday with 2,242 trains being cancelled in a move that throws the travel plans of 300,000 commuters into chaos.
Members of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, will walk out for the third day this week after talks at the conciliation service Acas ended in deadlock.
Talks were held over two days but the two sides failed to reach an agreement.
The dispute centres around the introduction of driver-only controlled trains on the network, in which the carriage doors are operated from the cab. Under the system, the role of the traditional guard is downgraded.
Advertisement
Southern insists that conductors will be retained on trains but the company wants to reserve the right to run services with only one person on board, the driver, in an emergency. Unions, however, are unwilling to bow to the request and insist that trains should be run only with two staff members on board. They insist that one-man operations are unsafe.
Conductors represented by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) are also on strike over the same issue, with walkouts having been staged since April. Collectively, more than 20 days of strike action have been taken so far this year.
The intervention by Aslef, however, has led to a dramatic escalation of the dispute, with trains being completely cancelled by the walkout, which involves almost 1,000 drivers.
Aslef took strike action on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and has pledged to walkout for six consecutive days early in the new year. About 20 RMT drivers are also involved.
Separately, RMT conductors will stage a 48-hour strike at the start of next week and a three-day walkout over new year.
Advertisement
The government is now believed to be working on new anti-strike legislation in an attempt to curb the impact of stoppages by powerful rail unions. This includes ensuring that at least half of services continue to run in the event of any strike.
Separately, ministers are considering the breakup of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), Southern’s parent company, which is the biggest rail operator in the country. It runs four lines in the southeast and has faced heavy criticism over its response to the strike.
In a statement, Nick Brown, chief operating officer of GTR, said the company had put a “practical offer” on the table for the union to consider overnight with the aim of getting Friday’s strike called off.
“Regrettably, they simply will not shift from their entrenched position and rigid opposition to our modernisation plans,” he said. “Once again, Aslef want to go back and not look forward.
“Passengers and businesses are being held to ransom by the unions’ wholly unjustified and unnecessary industrial action. The real victims of these strikes are passengers who simply want to receive the train service they deserve to get them to work and home again.
Advertisement
“Aslef claims drivers closing doors is inherently unsafe. The Office of Rail and Road and the Rail Safety & Standards Board have stated that drivers closing doors is a safe mode of operation.
“For 30 years trains have been running up and down the country’s railways this way and today over a third of the national train network runs this way.
“So the public will be simply perplexed that the union is maintaining such an entrenched position given drivers being fully in charge of the train is so commonplace today.”