Southern releases service plan for week-long RMT conductors’ strike

Southern has released details of the service it plans to run if the RMT’s five day conductors’ strike next week goes ahead. Talks are planned at Acas tomorrow, Wednesday and Southern says the RMT must call off the action by Thursday if it is to avoid a strike timetable on Monday.

If the strike goes ahead, then by using contingency conductors, Southern expects to run almost 60% of its normal timetable (or two-thirds of the temporary revised timetable) from Monday 8 August to Friday 12 August inclusive. There will be extra staff at stations to help passengers and arrangements in place for passengers to use alternative transport providers.

There will be a restricted service, with many routes having fewer trains, and, unfortunately, on some routes there will be no service at all. Trains on many routes will start late and finish early (0700/0730-1800).

Passengers can find out details of how they may be affected so they can plan their journeys atwww.southernrailway.com/rmtstrike.

Govia Thameslink Railway Passenger Service Director Angie Doll said: “We are sorry that our passengers once again look set to suffer further disruption because of the RMT. The union must call this action off by Thursday afternoon if we are to avoid having to put in Monday’s strike timetable.

“This action is not necessary. Our new on-board supervisors will no longer close the doors, a task that passes to the driver with the aid of CCTV. This will cost no-one their jobs, and frees up staff on board trains to better serve passengers.

“As many services will have staff on board as they do today and our on-board staff will have an improved role which better meets the needs of passengers, securing their valued position on the railway for the long-term.

“And there will be fewer train cancellations in future: currently, conductors are tied to specific routes and services, but the new on-board supervisor will be able to go anywhere on our network, significantly reducing the perennial problem of train cancellations due to conductors not being available when they’re delayed by disruption, for example.”

The revised temporary timetable will resume across the Southern network after the strike concludes, for a minimum three weeks, during which time Southern will reintroduce shuttle services on the West London Line (two each way each morning and evening peak) between Clapham Junction and Watford, calling at Imperial Wharf, West Brompton, Kensington Olympia, Shepherds Bush, Wembley Central and Harrow & Wealdstone.

Southern has already added 16 services into the temporary timetable and will continue to review arrangements daily against available train crew.