London mayor urges transport secretary to let TfL run struggling rail franchise whose passengers were being ‘held hostage’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

London’s mayor has urged the government to let Transport for London take control of the troubled Southern rail franchise.

Sadiq Khan said passengers were being “held hostage” by continued delays and disruption.

Southern has cancelled more than 300 trains a day in the wake of staff shortages, illness and industrial action.

It runs services from Victoria and London Bridge to Brighton, Southampton and many other centres in Sussex and Kent. It is part of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which includes Gatwick Express, Great Northern and Thameslink services.



The Southern scandal has gone on long enough. GTR must lose its contract Read more

Khan told the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, that thousands of passengers who could not get to and from work were “understandably furious”.

“There is no doubt that the franchise must now be in default, and I have previously called for your department to step in and take control ... I now offer to go one step further and put my senior TfL team in charge of the Southern franchise until we get a permanent resolution,” he wrote in a letter.

Manuel Cortes, head of the TSSA rail union, said putting TfL in charge of Southern “would be a fast and efficient way to restore a proper level of service for long-suffering passengers who have been through hell these last few months” .



The RMT union general secretary, Mick Cash, said both passengers and staff were being held hostage and called for GTR to be removed.

He denied there had been unofficial industrial action by his union’s members. “What there is is a total and abject failure by GTR to recruit enough staff to fill rosters,” he wrote for the Guardian.

That problem has been compounded by a chronic shortage of rolling stock, Cash added.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has offered to put his senior Transport for London team in charge of Southern. Photograph: Hannah McKay/PA

“Technically, GTR doesn’t have a franchise; it has a management contract with the DfT in charge and all the risk carried by the taxpayer. The notion that the government can’t take action to sling Govia out is just nonsense,” he wrote.

“It is now down to the government to act, strip GTR of its contract, bring in Directly Operated Railways and end this scandal that shames our country’s transport services.”

The rail minister, Paul Maynard, said the RMT was holding passengers to ransom in both England and Scotland with its “completely unacceptable actions”.



“The situation with Southern services must improve and I am pleased that it is beginning to reinstate some of the trains suspended to manage the impact of the RMT action,” he said.

Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat transport spokeswoman for the London Assembly, said the answer was removing much of the franchise from Govia and giving it to London Overground to run.



Florence Eshalomi, her Labour counterpart, said: “A TfL takeover is a sensible step towards addressing the problems plaguing Southern, which the government have so far been content to kick into the long grass.”

There was more misery for rail passengers on Tuesday night when Brighton station was temporarily closed due to overcrowding after signalling and track problems.

A Southern spokesman apologised for the delays: “Train services across the whole of the south of England were affected by heat-related infrastructure problems yesterday, with many London terminals also experiencing crowding and delayed trains.”