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Sadiq Khan branded Southern Rail an “embarrassment to our city” today as he urged the Government to strip its operator of its franchise.

The Mayor waded headlong into the row accusing the firm of letting down commuters with its “disgraceful” level of service.

He called on the Department for Transport to take temporary control of operations from Govia Thameslink Railway which was inflicting “unceasing misery” on tens of thousands of passengers every day.

The embattled operator this week brought in an emergency timetable with almost 350 services cancelled a day, leaving commuters crammed onto packed trains or stranded on replacement buses.

Hundreds of furious passengers gathered at Victoria Station yesterday to protest the changes introduced by the company following months of disputes with staff.

Mr Khan called on transport ministers to speed up the long-promised transfer of suburban rail services to Transport for London, so he could deliver improved services, stations and fares.

He said: “I am appalled by the unceasing misery that Southern Rail has inflicted on tens of thousands of passengers, and I share their outrage at the lack of action to address it.

“Passengers are paying thousands of pounds for a service that rather than being ‘turn up and go’ has become ‘turn up and hope’. Their frustration at such a disgraceful level of service is obvious and it is justified.

“This utter mess is now an embarrassment to our city, it is an insult to hard-working Londoners who pay their fares and it must be fixed.

"That is why I am calling on the Government to strip Southern of its franchise and take over the temporary responsibility of running these services.”

City Hall believes there is precedent to stripping GTA of the Southern franchise. In 2003 Connex Southeastern lost its franchise eight years early due to poor financial management while in 2007 GNER lost the East Coast mainline for the same reason.

At the Victoria Station protest, passengers held their annual passes in the air, chanted and brandished placards emblazoned with the campaign motto “#Southernfail”.

Rail Minister Claire Perry said: “I’ve been clear that the current situation is unacceptable and that passengers deserve a far better service. However, the real solution is for the RMT to end this dispute and the high levels of sickness amongst its members.

“There is no threat to safety, jobs or pay from the introduction of new trains and new on board roles and no excuse left for industrial action.

“We are determined to deliver high quality services for passengers in London. That is why we are working with TfL and issued a prospectus earlier in the year for new ways to improve services in the capital.”

Organiser Alex Prosser-Snelling, who commutes from Horsham, said: “You can see how really frustrated these people are.

“We are talking about fare strikes but the operator’s income is fixed from the Government we don’t know how effective it will be.

“People are already declassifying themselves and sitting in First Class seats - they are taking the law into their own hands because they have no other options. We could try to bombard their complaints system with emails but I don’t think they have one.”

A Southern Rail spokesman apologised for the delays, blaming “unnecessary industrial action” and said talks with the RMT union over the role of conductors were expected to resume this week.

He said: “We understand the strength of feeling amongst passengers, and their frustration at the poor service and increase in random cancellations since the dispute with the RMT began.

“That is why we introduced the amended timetable to restore greater consistency in the short-term so that passengers can plan around it. We are very sorry for the effect on our passengers and we are determined to provide the level of service they rightly demand.”

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group said: “The challenges facing the Southern network would remain the same whoever is running it - modernising services and operating trains during major improvement work to transform London Bridge, the fourth busiest station in the country.”