Southern Rail STRIKE details

Easy 10 said:

That's an understatement. Worth publishing on here I think...

I've just received this comment, which I reproduce here in its entirety: Hi David,
I have just seen your blog post on the current situation at southern rail and would like to clear up some confusion around the situation.i, as most of you commuters am extremely fed up of the company spun and lies and am looking for a platform to shed some light on he situation. I tried to comment but as a non gmail user I was unable to do so. You have my permission to post my email however if you chose to do so I want it posted in its entirety if that's ok. I am an employee of southern so would appreciate it if you would refrain from making my email address public.

I know the current situation is extremely infuriating but it needs to be looked at from two sides. firstly the current agreement between govia and the DFT.
This is in fact a management contract which differ's from every other agreement throughout the country. All other TOC's hold something called a franchise agreement. Everyone is different but essentially they r responsible for the day to day running of that network. They have specific requirements they have to meet but they generally make the decisions, however with govia's management agreement they have no control or make no decisions. All he terms, targets and and plans have been set out by the DFT. Govia are simply there to implement the changes.
This is unique and has occurred for one reason and one reason only. A test bed for the rest of the country.
In 2011 a report called the McNulty report was published sand set out a number of wide ranging proposals for cutting cost on he railways. Since then the DFT has been putting together a plan to 'streamline' costing on the railway. One of the major changes was to rid the network of guards. (Along with many other members of staff)
What we are seeing (along with arriva Wales and first scotrail) is the beginning of these changes. Many people have asked why MP's and media outlets have been so quite on the matter and as to why govia have no fear of losing the franchise. This is because they are purely the axemen. The DFT will not remove them as they want the company to be the face of the changes to avoid huge public objections aimed at the conservative government. The senior management are purely being told what to do. It's written in their agreement. I have been through the 668 pages of the agreement and they are given financial bonuses based on the inline notation of the changes. However only a freedom of information request will allow us to obtain the actual financial figures. The CEO Charles Horton was brought in to do a similar job (albeit in a smaller scale) at connex. Peter wilkinson speech was an insight into the DFT's and governments plans. It also per toy aligns with the plan to rid the country of unions.
After many failed attempts with filed bills both in the House of Parliament and House of Lords, the conservatives see this as a perfect opportunity to kill of the unions. No staff = no members = no unions.

Secondly you have to appreciate the serve lack of staffing and staff moral within the company. For years the franchise has relied upon staff working rest days to cover the basic timetable. It's estimated the company is operating at 80% staffing levels. Hence you have the current problem. The company has indeed removed rest day working from striking staff members causing the problems you are experiencing. This will unfortunately never change to conserve profits. They would rather be under staffed and pay overtime when needed then have the required number staff and have some being 'spare' when staff sickness/holiday levels are low. I can also confirm that morale is at an all time low. The pure nastiness and bullying from senior management has been on a level never experienced before.
I hope this has cleared up some issues and hopefully opens the eyes of many of the travelling public.
I hope you are able to spread this to as many people as possible.
Kind regards

If all that is true, then wow. Just wow.

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albionite said:

Not sure to the reason to this but best guess is they want the service to be a shambles untill the public have had enough and turn their anger onto the staff.

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pasty said:

If that's the case then they are failing miserably. If anything when this all started I was against the strikes, as I usually am, but the longer this goes on and the more information that is coming out, my opinion is definitely changing towards favouring the staff.

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yxee said:

This is absurd. Who can help me write a letter my MP? any templates that incorporate all this info?

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Gwylan said:

I see little point in writing to any Sussex MP (unless you're a constituent of Kyle or Lucas). As Private Eye and the above blog make out, GTR is acting on government orders so any Tory MP will simply parrot the things-will-get-better line. It will just be a waste of effort.

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Hotchilidog said:

Farcial scenes at Victoria last night as trains to the south coast were delayed, and cancelled. Am seriously considering binning London nights out where I have to get a late train back on a week night, it's not worth the hassle. It's bad enough getting back to Brighton (only one train running between 10.30 and 1am last night) getting back to Eastbourne/Hastings/Littlehampton etc a complete nightmare.

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albionite said:

Not sure to the reason to this but best guess is they want the service to be a shambles untill the public have had enough and turn their anger onto the staff.

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beorhthelm said:

if staff strike this will only play into the hands of the company. the strategy presented relies on the unions acting to type. more unemotive infomation about whats being planned, much of which is in plain sight, and pressuring the MPs to follow up the cause would work better. i found out today the ticket office closures are still going ahead, the consultation was so short and no information afterward i assumed it was binned.

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thedonkeycentrehalf said:

The 00:05 from Victoria to Worthing is busy at the best of times, let alone when many services before it have been cancelled. Would I trust SASTA to run this service anyway? As much as I would trust Wifred Zaha not to fall over in the penalty box if I breathed in his presence!

As I said in an earlier post, this is exactly why I am flying from Southampton to Manchester and getting a cab each way to Southampton rather than using the train. After a full day working away, I have no desire to be stuck at Victoria / Gatwick / Haywards Heath late at night. I would probably end up getting a cab back home form Gatwick or the Heath anyway at this rate.

One question for those who know more about ticketing. If I book an advance ticket to say Liverpool through Southern and I miss my connection due to a SASTA cancellation, would Virgin let me on the next train or would I have to pay the difference and then try to claim it back from Southern?

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Tom Hark said:

Won't be a wasted effort if the Brexit vote goes the way of the Leave campaign (or goes pretty close) and a snap election is called before the end of the year, as has been bandied about. Then the Tory MPs will be fighting for their seats. Maybe worth reminding them of that scenario in any correspondence with them.

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thedonkeycentrehalf said:

One question for those who know more about ticketing. If I book an advance ticket to say Liverpool through Southern and I miss my connection due to a SASTA cancellation, would Virgin let me on the next train or would I have to pay the difference and then try to claim it back from Southern?

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Deadly Danson said:

Another terrible terrible shift. No one has a clue what is going on, numerous understandable moans from passengers who haven't got a clue what's going on and can't believe that we don't either. Cancellations galore. One of my colleagues was threatened with a stabbing today. This will all end in tears or a serious incident. This is only going to get worse. I think unless the situation is resolved by August, which is unlikely, I think the Albion can forget about Southern being able to offer a football service let alone a regular train service.

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Plooks said:

I didn't think we could do snap elections anymore? Didn't they pass something that said they could not do that in the last parliament?

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Cosmic Joker said:

Last three trains from Barnham back to Chichester were all cancelled tonight. According to an off duty guard at the pub I was at at, hundreds of people at Barnham demanding taxis..

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