Passenger has job offer withdrawn by new bosses because they can't rely on the trains

A TRAIN commuter had a new job offer withdrawn when her new employers realised she would be travelling to work on the chaos-ridden Southern Railways services, it has been revealed.
Cancellations and delays on the Southern networkCancellations and delays on the Southern network
Cancellations and delays on the Southern network

Hundreds of thousands of commuters are regularly affected by delays and cancellations, on top of a series of strikes by Southern drivers and guards.

With a High Court ruling expected on Thursday over whether the newest wave of industrial action may go ahead, one Conservative MP said the impact of strikes by “selfish” unions has been “catastrophic”.

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Writing in the Telegraph on the issue, Nick Herbert said that last week one of his constituents had a “vital new job offer withdrawn when the employer realised she would travel on Southern”.

The Arundel and South Downs MP said: “Passengers are routinely arriving at work or returning home hours late, straining their jobs and family life.

“They are having to stand for entire journeys on late-running trains which are seriously overcrowded. Some commuters have lost jobs or become sick with worry.”

Mr Herbert added: “Hardly a day goes by without an announcement of points failure, signalling problems or broken-down trains.”

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The MP said he welcomed moves by the Government to bring “Network Rail and Southern more closely together to improve performance” and the announcement of compensation.

But he said there is “clearly a need for long term investment to upgrade creaking commuter lines in the South of England”.

And he said the Government should review legislation which has allowed “a few hundred staff to hold an essential public service to ransom on a bogus issue for months”.

All Southern services will be halted for three days next week and six days in January if a judge refuses to stop members of the Aslef union walking out in a dispute over driver-only trains.

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Drivers have already started an indefinite ban on overtime which, coupled with a strike by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union in a separate row over changes to the role of conductors, has led to around half of Southern’s services being cancelled.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers will face the biggest delays for years if the first round of strikes goes ahead as planned on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Parent company Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has asked for an injunction against the walkouts, arguing that the Aslef action will unlawfully restrict freedoms protected under EU law.

If GTR succeeds it is understood it would be the first time an injunction to prevent industrial action had been obtained in this country on that basis.

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Hugh Mercer QC, representing the company, said there were “things going on in the background” over the prospect of resolving the dispute out of court, but it was unknown if they would “bear any fruit”.

The judge hearing the case, Sir Michael Burton, said it was a “given” that lawful strikes cause disruption and he hoped any negotiations behind the scenes succeeded.

But Mr Herbert said that passengers are “furious to the point of mutiny”, and that the unions have “disabled the railway through industrial action” - with commuters caught in the middle.

“As winter sets in and the unions plot new strikes, the situation looks set to get even worse,” Mr Herbert said.

“The time has come to call the unions out. Their action is selfish, unjustifiable and nakedly political. They should stand down now or face the consequences.”

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