Department for Transport strongly criticised by auditors and unions for decisions that led to major disruption to passengers

The government’s management of the UK’s largest rail franchise has been severely criticised by auditors who found that policy decisions have had a negative impact upon millions of passengers.

Travellers on the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) franchise have suffered the worst disruption on the network since services began in September 2014, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

The Department for Transport (DfT) implemented decisions that “have negatively impacted on passengers”, it found, although industrial action has also contributed towards delays and cancellations.

A report released on Wednesday noted that the “complex and ambitious” franchise run by Govia Thameslink has the highest passenger numbers in the country and includes four major train services operating on a very congested part of the railway.

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DfT officials failed to grasp the potential impact on passengers of combining an increase in capacity, targets to improve services and the expansion of driver-only operated trains, which led to strikes by trade union members.



As well as a collapse in service, auditors have also uncovered additional costs to the public purse of potentially tens of millions of pounds a year. The report said the department expects to pay Govia Thameslink following alterations to train services and to reflect delays to the delivery of new trains.

Responding to the report, rail unions said that the transport secretary at the time, Chris Grayling, and his predecessor, Patrick McLoughlin, should be held to account for mishandling the franchise.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, said: “On their watch, as the secretaries of state for transport, they let the DfT get it wrong. Passengers have suffered, totally unnecessarily, and taxpayers have had to pick up the bill. The company got it totally wrong – with the connivance of the DfT – now we want heads to roll.”



The head of the RMT, Mick Cash, whose union has been embroiled in a dispute with Southern over the role of guards for 20 months, said wasted money could have guaranteed a guard on the trains. “It was instead wasted propping up the private owners while they presided over the worst rail franchise in the country. This is a scandal of epic proportions,” he said.

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Since Govia began operating the full franchise in July 2015, around 146,000 trains, or 7.7% of services, have either been cancelled or delayed by over half an hour, compared with 2.8% on the rest of the network. Much of the disruption has been caused by a shortage of train crews, the report said.

Between the start of the franchise and August 2017 the DfT made franchise payments of £2.8bn to Govia and received £3.6bn from train tickets.

The head of the NAO, Sir Amyas Morse, said: “Some of the problems could have been avoided if the department had taken more care to consider passengers in its design of the franchise.”

A DfT spokesperson said: “The NAO report confirms that the primary cause of delays and cancellations to passengers has been lack of available staff, which is a direct result of strike action. Clearly the disruption passengers have experienced is unacceptable but the NAO recognises that service has improved over the last 12 months.”

Charles Horton, Govia’s chief executive, said problems on the franchise have “sometimes been greater than expected and we regret the disruption caused to our passengers”.