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Britain's biggest rail franchise has been branded the worst service over the last three years and poor value for money for passengers.

The damning verdict on the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) franchise comes from the government’s own spending watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO) in a scathing report.

Labour and rail union leaders said the report was “dynamite” and proved the case for taking railways into public ownership as the privatised model had failed.

The hard-hitting report said 900,000 passengers a day on the troubled franchise have suffered the worst disruption on the network since services began in September 2014.

Since Govia Thameslink Railway Ltd started operating the full franchise in July 2015, around 146,000 services (7.7% of planned services) have either been cancelled or have been delayed by over 30 minutes, compared to 2.8% on the rest of the network.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Labour’s Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said: “The Conservative policy of privatised rail is not sustainable. Fares have risen three times faster than wages since 2010 and passengers are being priced off the railway.

“Government pay-outs to companies failing to deliver decent services, soaring fares and poor industrial relations are hallmarks of privatised rail.

“This government is not being honest with the public about rail. It sets fares but will not defend them and supports franchising while all the evidence points to its failings.

“Our railway desperately needs public ownership so they work in the interest of the many, not the few.”

The report said industrial action by rail unions over the role of guards and driver only operations had been a “amjor contributor” to delays and and cancellations.

But stressed that the Department for Transport (DfT) made decisions which “have negatively impacted on passengers” and failed to fully evaluate the effects of industrial action on passengers.

Also, the department did not seek sufficient assurance that Govia Thameslink would have enough train drivers when it took on the franchise. A large chunk of the disruption has been caused by a shortage of train crews.

The report noted that the “complex and ambitious” franchise has the highest passenger numbers in the country and includes four major train services operating on a very congested part of the railway with unreliable infrastructure.

The DfT and Govia say industrial action was the biggest cause of this, although the operator has also been hit by a shortage of employed drivers.

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

NAO head Amyas Morse said: “Over the last three years long-suffering passengers on the Thameslink franchise have experienced the worst performance on the rail network.

“Some of the problems could have been avoided if the Department had taken more care to consider passengers in its design of the franchise.”

Govia chief executive Charles Horton said the difficulties faced by the franchise have “sometimes been greater than expected and we regret the disruption caused to our passengers.

“I am more confident than ever that its trailblazing achievements will be felt by rail travellers for generations to come.”

The RMT rail union, which has been locked in a bitter dispute with Southern over the role of guards for 20 months, described the report as “dynamite.”

(Image: PA)

Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said:” “The report makes it clear that tens of millions of pounds of public money, cash which could have guaranteed a guard on the trains and delivered decent, accessible rail services, was instead wasted propping up the private owners while they presided over the worst rail franchise in the country.

“The solution is simple. GTR should be stripped of the franchise for gross and repeated failures, the routes should be taken under public ownership and the cash-led cuts to safety critical staffing should be halted and reversed.

“Anything else is just another cop out and will spark a furious backlash from the passengers and staff caught in the middle of this grotesque chaos. This report should be the final nail in the coffin of more than two decades of rail privatisation in Britain.”



Lib-Dem Transport spokesperson Jenny Randerson, said:“The Conservatives appear quite happy to continue their legacy of treating passengers with contempt.



“The government knew this damning report was coming, yet Theresa May is too weak to hold Grayling's feet to the fire.



“She should have used the reshuffle to clear the problems at the top of the Department for Transport.”

KEY FACTS: 19% Of all the passenger rail services the Department for Transport is responsible for are on Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise.

62% Of Govia Thameslink trains arrived at their destination within five minutes of their scheduled time, at the peak of service disruption in November-December 2016

£13.4m Spending programme to improve performance agreed by Govia Thameslink for missing its performance targets