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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/20/southern-railway-failing-customers-cancellations-staff-shortages-delays
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| Southern Railway is failing customers again and again. That’s why I spoke out Southern Railway is failing customers again and again. That’s why I spoke out | |
| (3 months later) | |
| A small revolution is brewing among passengers on the Southern Railway routes to the coast. It is hand-knitted and very English. Nobody seems quite sure what to do – they are not given easily to revolt, these middle-class commuters, and they tend to direct their growing rage into their mobile phones. | A small revolution is brewing among passengers on the Southern Railway routes to the coast. It is hand-knitted and very English. Nobody seems quite sure what to do – they are not given easily to revolt, these middle-class commuters, and they tend to direct their growing rage into their mobile phones. |
| Even so, being turfed off motionless carriages, as trains are cancelled time after time, evening after evening, taking three hours to get home on a commute that should take one, losing your job or the chance to see your children at night – does enrage people. And the repeated recorded apology seems to make it worse. | Even so, being turfed off motionless carriages, as trains are cancelled time after time, evening after evening, taking three hours to get home on a commute that should take one, losing your job or the chance to see your children at night – does enrage people. And the repeated recorded apology seems to make it worse. |
| Quietly and with little media attention, the Southern Railway franchise is slowly unravelling. | Quietly and with little media attention, the Southern Railway franchise is slowly unravelling. |
| But what can you do if nobody is paying any attention because this isn’t happening in the metropolis? What do you do when the investigative journalists have mostly disappeared, along with the trains? | But what can you do if nobody is paying any attention because this isn’t happening in the metropolis? What do you do when the investigative journalists have mostly disappeared, along with the trains? |
| It isn’t as if I have any great expertise in the railway world. I was just equipped with a strong sense that the phrase “temporary staff shortages” which accompany every cancellation wasn’t the full story. | It isn’t as if I have any great expertise in the railway world. I was just equipped with a strong sense that the phrase “temporary staff shortages” which accompany every cancellation wasn’t the full story. |
| A conversation with rail staff confirmed this, so I posted a blog about it, and within three days it had been read by 40,000 people (it is now more 85,000 across two posts). When it reached 2,000, nearly 10 times the number who usually read what I write, I felt chuffed. As the figures rose, I began to feel unnerved. | A conversation with rail staff confirmed this, so I posted a blog about it, and within three days it had been read by 40,000 people (it is now more 85,000 across two posts). When it reached 2,000, nearly 10 times the number who usually read what I write, I felt chuffed. As the figures rose, I began to feel unnerved. |
| Then the messages began to pour in, on email and Twitter, some anonymous, some logical, some incoherent with rage; there were leaked memos, quotes, facts, messages from company directors motionless at Clapham Junction, from guards, drivers and administrators. One platform staff member said they had just resigned after another horrendous shift being shouted at by furious passengers. I had a poignant message from a disabled passenger unable to travel because he could no longer phone ahead to ask for a ramp when the trains never arrived. | Then the messages began to pour in, on email and Twitter, some anonymous, some logical, some incoherent with rage; there were leaked memos, quotes, facts, messages from company directors motionless at Clapham Junction, from guards, drivers and administrators. One platform staff member said they had just resigned after another horrendous shift being shouted at by furious passengers. I had a poignant message from a disabled passenger unable to travel because he could no longer phone ahead to ask for a ramp when the trains never arrived. |
| Southern’s operators, Govia Thameslink Railway, have unleashed not just misery and rage, but creativity | Southern’s operators, Govia Thameslink Railway, have unleashed not just misery and rage, but creativity |
| Nobody knows quite what to do. A demonstration at Brighton station attracted those people whose trains arrived on time, but seemed to emphasise people’s powerlessness. Commuters chanting at plush South Croydon was pretty unprecedented but seems unlikely to rattle the government’s resolve. But I’m also aware of lawyers documenting overcrowded platforms ready for the public inquiry. | Nobody knows quite what to do. A demonstration at Brighton station attracted those people whose trains arrived on time, but seemed to emphasise people’s powerlessness. Commuters chanting at plush South Croydon was pretty unprecedented but seems unlikely to rattle the government’s resolve. But I’m also aware of lawyers documenting overcrowded platforms ready for the public inquiry. |
| I’ll say this for Southern’s operators, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR). They have unleashed not just misery and rage, but creativity. By the middle of this week, I had become by default the central repository of information. It was largely because I was going to write this article that Dyan Crowther, the chief operating officer of GTR, phoned me and told me that the story that they had banned overtime was a “complete lie”. | I’ll say this for Southern’s operators, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR). They have unleashed not just misery and rage, but creativity. By the middle of this week, I had become by default the central repository of information. It was largely because I was going to write this article that Dyan Crowther, the chief operating officer of GTR, phoned me and told me that the story that they had banned overtime was a “complete lie”. |
| But GTR had, in fact, introduced other inflexibilities, including a ban on swapping roster duties to fit in with family arrangements. It may be that this was far more important than removing car park and family rail travel permits. It was almost, but not quite, enough to explain the cancellations – if your children need taking to the doctor, and there is no way to swap, it may explain, if not entirely excuse, calling in sick. | But GTR had, in fact, introduced other inflexibilities, including a ban on swapping roster duties to fit in with family arrangements. It may be that this was far more important than removing car park and family rail travel permits. It was almost, but not quite, enough to explain the cancellations – if your children need taking to the doctor, and there is no way to swap, it may explain, if not entirely excuse, calling in sick. |
| The company “listened to conductors”, Crowther told me, and allowed crews to swap rosters again on Wednesday. | The company “listened to conductors”, Crowther told me, and allowed crews to swap rosters again on Wednesday. |
| Meanwhile, the public are caught, as usual, between the warring sides in the dispute over driver-only operation. It seems eminently solvable (nobody is losing jobs), but trust has broken down and seems irrecoverable. Both sides have sent me “outrageous” remarks by the other side, in a way that only deepens my frustration as a passenger. Worse, the RMT seems set to lose the moral high ground by striking again on Tuesday. | Meanwhile, the public are caught, as usual, between the warring sides in the dispute over driver-only operation. It seems eminently solvable (nobody is losing jobs), but trust has broken down and seems irrecoverable. Both sides have sent me “outrageous” remarks by the other side, in a way that only deepens my frustration as a passenger. Worse, the RMT seems set to lose the moral high ground by striking again on Tuesday. |
| But to call what’s been happening in recent weeks a “sick-note strike”, and to say as the rail minister Claire Perry does that they don’t intervene in industrial action, is worse than glib. Everyone knows there are not enough staff, and the pressures on the remaining staff rise every day. Of course they get sick. | But to call what’s been happening in recent weeks a “sick-note strike”, and to say as the rail minister Claire Perry does that they don’t intervene in industrial action, is worse than glib. Everyone knows there are not enough staff, and the pressures on the remaining staff rise every day. Of course they get sick. |
| The sheer smugness of the government, which lowered targets back in February for Southern on the basis of a “recovery plan” (they are not meeting those either), is almost as infuriating as the cancellations. First, giant inflexible companies, protected from their customers by the government, are not the original entrepreneurial, customer-facing inspiration for privatisation. Second, why should service companies that are unable to lead and inspire their staff be protected by ministers? It makes no sense to protect failure. | The sheer smugness of the government, which lowered targets back in February for Southern on the basis of a “recovery plan” (they are not meeting those either), is almost as infuriating as the cancellations. First, giant inflexible companies, protected from their customers by the government, are not the original entrepreneurial, customer-facing inspiration for privatisation. Second, why should service companies that are unable to lead and inspire their staff be protected by ministers? It makes no sense to protect failure. |
| I am a journalist by profession. But I’m all alone. I have no legal back-up, no office. Nobody pays my phone bill. The media has begun to wake up to the story, but only when David Cameron got caught in the chaos on his way to Haywards Heath. This may be the modern world of news – but it shouldn’t just be me. | I am a journalist by profession. But I’m all alone. I have no legal back-up, no office. Nobody pays my phone bill. The media has begun to wake up to the story, but only when David Cameron got caught in the chaos on his way to Haywards Heath. This may be the modern world of news – but it shouldn’t just be me. |