The union behind a series of strikes disrupting services on the Southern rail network has accepted an offer of direct talks with the government in an attempt to solve the long-running dispute.



The RMT, which represents the on-board supervisors, formerly conductors, on Southern trains, said its general secretary, Mick Cash, would meet the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, at his earliest convenience.

In a letter on Thursday, Grayling wrote: “I ask you again to call off the RMT strikes on Southern and come to the table to meet with me to reach a resolution to this long-running dispute.”



The news is unlikely to affect the disruption ahead for commuters this month, when two strikes called by Aslef, the train drivers’ union, will stop all Southern services for at least six days. Just 12 of the drivers are RMT members and intend to join the action.



In response to the same invitation from Grayling, the Aslef general secretary, Mick Whelan, said he was willing to meet again to explain drivers’ concerns, but warned that “your offer to meet does not provide a rationale for my union to call off next week’s strike”.

It does, however, represent some movement in the dispute, during which unions have opposed changes to the role and responsibilities of conductors on trains as more services move to driver-only operation.



Both unions have long argued that the change threatens passenger safety. They also say the move has been imposed by the Department for Transport, leading to calls for direct talks with the government.

Grayling has been reluctant to get involved, telling MPs that such a move would escalate and further politicise the dispute. But the transport secretary is now seeking to involve the unions in drawing up a national framework for safely dispatching trains – a move that could head off further disputes in other franchises, or at least nullify rows over safety.

The invitation to talks was prompted by a further report by the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), that said driver-only trains were broadly safe for Southern if it upgraded some CCTV facilities and took other precautions.

Referring to Southern’s parent company, Govia Thameslink Railway, Ian Prosser, HM chief inspector of railways, said: “Following a thorough review of GTR-Southern’s method and implementation of driver-only operation, ORR is satisfied that with suitable equipment, proper procedures and competent staff in place, it is a safe method of working.”

Grayling has asked Prosser to draw up a national safety framework to lay out ground rules for how driver-only trains can safely operate, saying he expects the unions to be fully involved in this process.

Grayling said: “This is a powerful report from the independent rail regulator that confirms that Southern’s plans for driver-controlled trains are safe.



“We should never stop trying to make our railways safer, and that is why the ORR has followed their review with recommendations on how GTR can go even further to improve the safety of train dispatch.

“I have written to the unions again today to ask them to suspend this needless strike. This report should provide an opportunity for both sides to get back round the table for talks to put an end to this dispute, which is causing misery for hundreds of thousands of passengers.”

While Southern said the report confirmedits plans were safe, the RMT denounced it as a “total whitewash” and questioned the independence of the ORR. Cash said the authors had taken no evidence from unions and ignored other safety issues around driver-only operation, adding that it “proves conclusively that the ORR is no longer fit for purpose and is nothing more than an arm of government, wholly committed to propping up the train companies and the Department for Transport”.

Whelan said: “Despite what Southern railways is disingenuously claiming, the report from the Office of Rail and Road does not give driver-only operation a clean bill of health. It doesn’t say it is safe, merely that it can be safe.”

Charles Horton, the chief executive of GTR, said: “The independent rail regulator carried out a full and comprehensive review, including a thorough risk assessment, of our plans to implement driver-controlled trains on new routes on the Southern network. We warmly welcome their robust report, which confirms that our roll-out programme is safe.”



He repeated calls for Aslef to stop its planned strikes, starting on 10 January, saying: “The unions must now acknowledge that they have no credible argument that it’s an unsafe method of operation.”