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Southern and ScotRail train strikes hit tens of thousands of passengers Southern and ScotRail train strikes hit tens of thousands of passengers
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Tens of thousands of railway passengers have been hit by delays and cancellations as staff at Southern and ScotRail began a 24-hour walkout. Tens of thousands of railway passengers at opposite ends of the country were hit by delays and cancellations on Tuesday as staff walked out in a bitter dispute over the role of guards.
The RMT, which says the strike is over plans “to remove the safety-critical role of the guard”, described Tuesday’s action across the two franchises as “rock solid”. The two franchises affected, Southern and ScotRail, said they had cancelled 40% and 30% of services respectively. There were no services at all on 10 Southern routes and 15 ScotRail routes. Many of the services that were running were severely affected, forcing customers to queue at a number of stations.
Southern, which has suffered a spate of cancellations blamed on staff sickness in recent weeks, said there would be no services on 10 routes and a limited service on five others. The added disruption was particularly galling for Southern customers, who have had to endure weeks of problems, with up to 90 trains cancelled a day. On Tuesday the RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, labelled the franchise “a basket case”.
A queueing system has been introduced at some stations and first-class carriages opened to all ticketholders because of the restricted services. A message on Southern’s website said: “Unfortunately we cannot guarantee to get you to your destination.” Richard Pye, 47, who works at an events and exhibitions business in Victoria, usually travels from Eden Bridge, where all trains had been cancelled on Tuesday. “I had to drive to Oxted, which is about seven or eight miles, so that was a pain and I had the expense of parking the car,” he said at London Bridge station.
ScotRail said there would be no services on 12 routes and three others would only be served by replacement buses. “It was difficult, but I managed to get here. But I don’t know what’s it’s going to be like tonight when everyone is trying to get back. We had two staff who couldn’t get into work at all today, so it hurts our business.
The train companies and the RMT have been engaged in a heated back-and-forth over who is to blame for the action. The ScotRail managing director, Phil Verster, described the strike as “only about who opens and closes doors on trains, nothing more”. “They’re trying to get rid of the conductors and get the drivers to open the doors, which is dangerous. I’m not sure I think they should strike, but it’s not sensible to cut conductors.”
Lindsay Wheeler, a physiotherapist at St Thomas’s hospital, said: “I come in from Oxted. It’s delayed quite a lot which is not great, but I usually get into work on time. But today I’ve cancelled four patients in the last two hours of work.”
Cash described the separate 24-hour walkouts as “rock solid”. He apologised to customers but the RMT claims it is locked in an existential battle to preserve the role of guards from an unsafe move towards driver-only trains.
The franchises and the government claim the dispute is solely over transferring responsibility for operating train doors to drivers instead of guards, who will focus on customer service. The union retorts that the safety of passengers is at stake and that rail companies are seeking to diminish the role of guards and ultimately get rid of many of them.
“We’ve got a political stance of the government, a financial stance of the companies which are looking to maximise profits and the union and passengers in the middle,” a spokesman told the Guardian. “Every threat to our members and the services will be met with the stiffest resistance. If we’re not there to defend the guards, what are we here for?”
In support of its case, on Tuesday it published leaked ScotRail internal discussion documents, which said “extending DCO [driver controlled operations] was part of the franchise bid. It is critical to maximising economic benefit”. The documents also referred to conductor operation “making services harder to operate during industrial action”.
Relations between the union and Southern have deteriorated to such an extent that operator Govia Thameslink Railway has suggested that high levels of sick days it blames for recent cancellations are the result of unofficial strike action. The RMT retorts that the rota is understaffed and that some services have been cancelled when staff are available.
A Southern spokesman pointed to comments by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) that on the 60% of trains in Scotland where doors are opened by the driver there has been no evidence of a deterioration in safety and accused the union of making “bogus safety claims”.
The RMT said the RSSB was not credible because it is a membership organisation “bought and paid for by the train companies”.
ScotRail’s managing director, Phil Verster, described the strike as “needless”.
Related: ScotRail guards to strike in dispute over driver-only trainsRelated: ScotRail guards to strike in dispute over driver-only trains
He added: “Each and every day, people in Scotland make around 150,000 journeys on trains that have the doors safely opened and closed by the driver, while a second member of staff carries out customer service duties. The RMT are hiding behind a safety argument that doesn’t add up. The reality is that they are just opposed to change.”He added: “Each and every day, people in Scotland make around 150,000 journeys on trains that have the doors safely opened and closed by the driver, while a second member of staff carries out customer service duties. The RMT are hiding behind a safety argument that doesn’t add up. The reality is that they are just opposed to change.”
The RMT’s assistant general secretary, Mike Lynch, said the operators wanted the public to believe it was a dispute about opening doors. “That’s what the company wants you to promote,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “It’s about the role of the guard. It’s about the dilution of safety on the rail system.” The rail minister, Claire Perry, said “unacceptable” problems at Southern had been made worse by union bosses. “This is not about losing jobs, staff will still be on board trains to help passengers,” she said.
The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) has pointed out that on 60% of the trains involved, the doors are opened by the driver not the guard, and that there is no evidence of any deterioration in safety as result. But Lynch said: “The RSSB is a membership organisation, that is bought and paid for by the train companies. I don’t believe them, because they don’t investigate incidents.” “The government is investing £2bn in state-of-the-art trains, fully equipped with the latest technology and with more space for passengers. The safety regulator, the ORR [Office of Rail and Road], say trains like these with the doors operated by drivers are safe, therefore it is unacceptable that unions continue to overlook the substantial impact they are having on passengers’ lives through this unjustified action.”
Southern says it has been cancelling up to 90 trains a day recently because of staff sickness. Commuters have staged demonstrations over disruptions to the service. The walkout is expected to continue to affect some early morning services on Wednesday.
Charles Horton, the chief executive of the firm’s operator, Govia Thameslink Railway, suggested the high sickness rates may be due to conductors and drivers taking unofficial industrial action, ratcheting up the tension between the two sides.
In response, the RMT accused the operator of blaming staff sickness for services it has cancelled for other reasons.
Lynch said: “The companies are making claims that they haven’t proven people are going sick, but the real facts are that they are understaffed. They are running many vacancies amongst drivers and guards. We’ve had the public phoning us and going online saying that on many occasions there are drivers and guards ready and waiting to take trains into service and the company cancels them.
“Perhaps there are high levels of sickness, but you have to staff for an expected level of sickness. They are not staffing for normal levels of sickness and normal levels of attendance.”