Five days of strikes will go ahead on Southern rail services next week after talks broke down in recriminations between unions and the train company on Friday.



GTR, Southern’s operating company, said it had tabled a series of compromises but remained determined to press ahead with changes to the roles of conductors, claiming that the RMT union was unwilling to bend.

But the RMT claimed that the government had blocked any agreement. The union had earlier offered to suspend the strike planned from Monday if Southern could give similar guarantees to those it had accepted in a parallel dispute in Scotland.

Planned strikes on ScotRail were suspended on Wednesday after operating company Abellio agreed to guarantee a conductor on every train with “full competency”, while entering into discussion with unions over how trains would be dispatched.

In a letter to bosses at GTR, the RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said it was a “sensible and positive way forward” that would “bring an end to this dispute and enable Southern to start running a full service again”.

But as talks broke down on Friday afternoon, Cash said: “It was clear right from the start of these talks that there was no serious intent from Govia Thameslink to engage in genuine negotiations and that their script was being written from behind the scenes by their government paymasters.

“Compared to the progress we have been able to make on ScotRail, it is clear as day that GTR is being set up as a testing ground for a national union-busting experiment.”

However, GTR said the union’s offer was a “red herring” and did not allow the company to modernise for passengers. GTR said no jobs were at risk and that they intended to have a rebranded “onboard supervisor” on trains – the company has wanted the flexibility to run trains with only a driver aboard should it need to, something it said the union refused to discuss.

Passenger service director Angie Doll said: “We have gone the extra mile with our compromise offer, but the RMT has made it clear they are not prepared to negotiate.

“We are deeply disappointed and angry on behalf of our passengers at this stance, which will cause misery for our passengers and untold damage to the local economy in the south-east.”

The dispute has exacerbated problems at Southern in the last few months, with services thrown into disarray by staff shortages, compounding troubles from a new franchise and widespread engineering works.

Currently it attempts to run about 85% of its trains, on an emergency timetable, although further cancellations and late-running services have persisted. Southern admitted this week there was no prospect of normal service being reinstated before September.

On Thursday, with the addition of a hole that was discovered under rail tracks, cutting off many services to London, and a signal failure on the south coast, only one in three of the trains scheduled on the emergency timetable ran near schedule on the Southern mainline and metropolitan services, with one in six arriving at the right time.

While talks were continuing at Acas, Southern said it would plan to run 60% of its trains next week, should the RMT strike go ahead.

The dispute could yet escalate as two more unions, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association and Aslef, have said they would ballot station staff and drivers for a strike.

The Campaign for Better Transport and the Association of British Commuters are staging a protest march in London next Wednesday, calling on passengers to join them to bear a giant letter of protest against the failing Southern franchise to the rail minister. The march, starting at London Victoria station on Wednesday 10 August at 5.30pm, will end at the Department for Transport, where they will deliver demands for compensation and a fare freeze.