Rail users have had to put up with an appalling service from Southern Rail over the last few months. Even before the strikes the company’s service was one of the worse amongst all the train companies across the UK but now the situation has become totally unacceptable.
Businesses in the South and South East of England are being adversely affected, important hospital appointments missed, everyday family routines of commuters are being wrecked, people are losing their jobs because they cannot guarantee their employer what time they will get into work or, on strike days, even that they will get into work.
All this because of the deplorable non-service provided by Southern Rail. This cannot go any longer.
It is time for the Secretary of State at the Department of Transport (Dft), Chris Grayling MP, to act now before it is too late and serious long term damage is done to tens of thousands of lives and businesses as a result of the shocking rail service southern commuters have had to endure for far too long.
The Secretary of State must take personal responsibility for solving the crisis. Furthermore, it is also time for 50 or so Conservative MP’s in the region to insist Mr Grayling intervenes. We all know that if every local Tory whose constituents are affected by Southern Rail threatened to resign, the government would ensure all sides were around the negotiating table in a heartbeat!
No ifs or buts, the moment has clearly arrived time when Tory parliamentarians need to choose. Will they act in their beleaguered constituents interests or simply parrot the government’s line?
Their is a way forward but it takes leadership; granted this is not something we have seen much from Grayling over this dispute but in an attempt to find a practical way forward, and as the former MP for Eastbourne who always put my constituents first I am happy to offer him a solution.
The Secretary of State must take the following five steps:
1/ All parties involved – Southern Rail, RMT and Aslef agree to go to the independent tribunal ACAS for arbitration.
2/ There should be no pre-conditions to the talks.
3/ There must be no strikes whilst the talks continue.
4/ The final terms agreed by the negotiation be binding on all concerned.
5/ Furthermore, that the Dft must also accept the agreement and in the spirit of honest negotiation, publicly commit to not preventing Southern Rail from reaching terms with the Trade Unions.
An Acas spokesman has recently said: “Our services remain available.” Their offer must be taken up.
Bluntly the government needs to actually govern on behalf of beleaguered rail users. It is also time for the regions Conservative MP’s to stand up for their long suffering constituents.
I’ve put up a petition outlining my five step proposal – link below – please share far and wide so that we can get enough people on board to force some sense into those who actually have the power to fix this appalling our rail service.
* Stephen Lloyd was MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon until 2015. He was chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Education. In March 2013 the Group published a report called ‘RE: the truth unmasked’ on the supply of and support for RE teachers. In June 2013 Stephen tabled an Early Day Motion on RE’s role in tackling extremism.
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18 Comments
Stephen Lloyd is no mlonger entitled to letters after his name.
Perhaps Caroline Lucas could help, seeing as she is funded by the extreme left rail union who are trying to undermine democracy.
Can’t we just:
1) Renationalise the railways and have a network like that of Switzerland (which has virtually the same level of subsidy per passenger km);
2) Work towards no-strike agreements covering all staff.
Given the political will, we can break out of the ideological cul de sac we are currently in with privatised rail operation, which has proven itself a failure time after time.
@ Robert C. A lot of sense in what you say – although there’s not much sense in Grayling playing politics and trying to blacken the name of the Unions.
I know it’s over a century ago, but Lloyd George personally brokered a deal in a much fiercer railway strike back in 1912. Get out of you office and get the talks going, Grayling !!!.
@RobertC – The only real obstacle is getting to the point of having an employer, unions and workers with ethics similar to the Swiss…
Robert C
I remember all the work to rules when it was British Rail. Under nationalisation much of the network was closed. Of course there is a need for reform of the present structure.
I am glad I didn’t need to go to Eastbourne this Christmas.
Robert C : You seem to have got things the wrong way round. It was nationalised rail that was the problem, at least in Britain. We have a totally different culture from Europe, hence Brexit. The problem with Southern is not privatisation but the interference of the Government in a dispute which could have been resolved with goodwill. If the railways are renationalised then the Government will control them ( if they did not what would be the point ?) and Southern type disputes will become the norm, as they were under British Rail when the whole system was regularly closed by strikes and other forms of industrial action. Be careful what you wish for.
I think there is a degree of exaggeration of the effects of the Conductor’s dispute. Apart from the days when the drivers were striking there was a reasonable service on most routes. Now that 222 of the 223 Southern conductors have agreed to accept the new terms and conditions as On Board Supervisors ( a rather clumsy title but what’s in a name) can we assume that when the 223rd signs up the dispute will end ? Do not hold your breath.
Stephen: I think you’re missing out most important player here.
I was at the public meeting in February at Croydon Town Hall where Peter Wilkinson, Managing Director of Passenger Services at the Depart for Transport, declared war on the rail unions and their workers.
He predicted that there would be a summer of strikes, but that it would be necessary and worthwhile.
Rail staff were paid too much for cushy terms of employment. The strong-arm tactics of their unions had been fighting off any changes to reflect decades of technological progress, and “we have got to break them”.
He said he would achieve this by manoeuvring them into a strike that they couldn’t afford: “They have all borrowed money to buy cars and got credit cards. They can’t afford to spend too long on strike and I will push them into that place.”
The rail workers would “have to decide if they want to give a good service or get the hell out of my industry.”
The DfT wrote into Southern Rail’s contract the requirement to phase out guard-operation of train doors.
So it’s not Southern Rail that the rail unions have to negotiate with: it’s the Department for Transport.
I don’t have a problem with binding arbitration, but there’s not much point if Chris Grayling isn’t sitting at the table, taking responsibility for the actions of his government rather than pretending it has nothing to do with him.
And while we’re about it, I do think we’d all be better off if Chris Grayling were to dispense with the services of his enforcer and strike-maker in chief, Peter Wilkinson.
David Raw: Can you name a single politician today who bears the remotest resemblance to David Lloyd George or even Asquith ? I think the letters MP must mean mobile phoney as when I see images of the House of Coomons they all look like zombies tapping on their mobile phones even during important debates, clearly not paying the slightest attention. Hooray for the man who grabbed his god daughter’s phone in a theatre and threw it away.
nvelope2003 You miss the point – which is that Grayling ought to get off his derriere and get people sitting round the table.
As to comparisons, you’re correct to a point. Boris has a certain similarity to LLG in certain respects…. both have energy in all sorts of directions some of which should not be discussed in polite society and also a predilection for saying what is to their advantage rather than the actualite. Like LLG, I suspect BJ’s career will end in tears.
As to Squiff – the peacetime PM and Chancellor must be up there with the very best, certainly for intellect, and the wartime PM has been vastly under rated. Maybe Wilson and Healey could match him for intellect…. but we live in different times.
Talking of modern politicians, I see Javid’s Deutsche Bank has been fined 15 billion dollars for being part of the 2008 credit crisis (which he forgot to mention when he was blasting the Labour Government in the 2010 election).
PS the phone thrower is a Tory peer and junior member of the Govt…… so you’re wrong on that one two.
Merry Christmas.
David Raw: As you say, he is a Tory peer so he cannot be a member of the House of Commons. I was admiring his action in throwing away the phone, not his politics or position.
I am afraid it is you who is missing the point which is that when the Government gets involved in an industrial dispute it becomes protracted and costly to both the customers and the taxpayers in the event of that industry being publicly owned. The train operators may be “privatised” but the railways are owned by the state. The dispute on the Southern arises because it is state controlled. A private firm which had to rely on its customers alone for its viability could not let this dispute drag on and nor could the unions. Both sides can happily indulge their need for confrontation in the knowledge that we taxpayers will pick up the enormous bill and the customers will have to put up with the inconvenience until such time as they can either find alternative transport or another job. Just look at what has happened in those disputes which involved private companies over the Christmas period – a speedy solution was found. It is interesting that the old prenationalisation railway companies managed to run trains on Christmas Day and Boxing day unlike their state controlled successors. If one wishes to travel by public transport on those days then only the privately owned National Express buses are available. The old companies did not close half the system either.
Toby Keynes: Peter Wilkinson may have been unwise to make those comments in public, or indeed anywhere else but having worked in the public sector and in a private transport company and coming from a family where many members were employed on the railways there was something in what he said. Someone has to find the money to pay for all this, whether users or taxpayers, and it is only fair that railways should be operated efficiently and economically using modern technology where appropriate. Firms which do not keep abreast of modern innovations will not survive and it cannot be right that the public should be expected to subsidise the inefficiencies of the railways. The system is crying out for modernisation and improvement while money is being squandered.
nvelope 2003 A lot of missing points and I think you’ve got the wrong sort of leaves on your line.
Southern is the worst of all worlds – a private company propped up by the tax payer with a non interventionist Minister. LLG faced a private railway problem in 1912 but by force of personality and persuasion knocked heads together… Grayling sits it out twiddling his thumbs. Hopeless.
Earlier you asked which modern politicians are in the Asquith class. I’ll give you one : Angela Merkel. Farage hit a new low this week saying Berlin was her legacy, and also by attacking Jo Cox’s widower. Nasty little man.
@ David Raw,
I am pleased that you have a high regard for Angela Merkel, so do I.
This is a woman who has moved from conservative to liberal, changing her view on a number of issues including immigration, I admire her greatly. Now that Mr Obama has gone, she will be the liberal defender of the Western world.
She has always been cautious and as a scientist, analytical. I think that she needs all the support that is available at this point in time.
I wish you a very happy Christmas and good health in the coming year and beyond..
David Raw: I agree with you about Angela Merkel but that is all. Those who believe in the nationalisation of the railways will always stick to this fantasy no matter what evidence is adduced to show how foolish this would be. You seem to be unable to grasp that it is the Government which has created this dispute by ordering the operator to make the driver responsible for opening and closing the doors and then left them to cope with the mess but as the Transport Secretary is responsible for this how would nationalisation solve it ? Please do not talk about accountability because that is just theoretical. No Government Minister has ever accepted responsibility for anything since Critchell Down when Sir Thomas Dugdale resigned and even that turned out not to be what it seemed.
There are many stations which are used by a handful of people and cost millions of pounds to keep open but the state will not allow closure. Stopping there slows down trains and causes excessive wear on equipment. If they were closed the services would be more attractive to many potential passengers and use would most likely increase. Meanwhile they are driving their cars and creating pollution and traffic jams.
The Government owned Network Rail has cancelled the electrification of the line from Thingley Junction (near Chippenham) to Bristol to save money but the operators will have to spend almost as much to keep older diesel trains running and the electric trains have had to be converted to bi mode to run on non electrified lines at great expense. They will then have to be altered again to reduce the weight by removing the diesel engine if the line is ever electrified.
I’m afraid we will have to disagree – and I see no evidence of any flexibility in your position which I would class as post truth dogmatic neo-liberal nationalist.
You’re wrong (again) on ministerial responsibility. Tom Dugdale was not the last. Try looking up Peter Carrington’s CV.
Well Carrington’s resignation was just a formality as you must know. The word post truth means not telling the truth and I resent that accusation. Nor am I a dogmatic neo-liberal. I have studied the evidence which clearly you have not. If the railways were the dominant mode of transport then it might be sensible to nationalise them but they are used for a tiny share of travel outside the London commuter area and a few big cities. They are a bit like the Co-op – everyone claims to like it but not many people use it. We need more people to use the trains, not drive them away by messing them about and the privatised system has seen a tremendous increase in passenger numbers.
In the USA the private railway companies carry 40% of freight but the nationalised European rail freight system carries only a fraction of that because it is inflexible and unresponsive to the needs of the customer.
I would not be too bothered if the London commuter network was nationalised because we do not need to encourage any more people to use a system that is over crowded, nor do we want people travelling hundreds of miles to work every day so an inefficient state operated system would be ideal provided it did not require a subsidy and the money saved could be used for things which the majority of people need.
David Raw: You keep saying I have missed points but when I look through this thread I have meticulously answered almost every reasonable argument advanced ( although there are not many) but you just quote outdated slogans such as those used by the sort of public school preudo lefties who appear on those tedious BBC so called comedy programmes which have mercifully been pushed into the late night slots for when I am asleep
I wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you will enjoy playing with your BR train set – it will probably be the only train operating that day while the rest of the population are in their cars or forced to stay at home.