Commuters in the south of England face a third day of no train services today thanks to the biggest strikes since the 1990s. What’s the row about? Simon Wilson reports.
What’s happened?
There were two days of all-out stoppages on Southern Rail (aka “Southern Fail”) this week. A third strike was due today, though naturally commuters have been hoping that – like so many of Southern’s trains – it might get postponed or cancelled. This week’s strikes were the most widespread on the railways since privatisation in the 1990s, with all of Southern’s 2,242 daily services cancelled. This is the latest chapter in a bitter saga of management incompetence and union intransigence that has been rumbling on for eight months.
What’s the row about?
The dispute bringing misery to millions in Kent, Sussex, Surrey and South London is – on the face of it – about who gets to control the opening and closing of the train doors. At present, the job is done by an onboard guard/conductor, but the company wants to bring on “driver-only-operated” (DOO) trains, where the driver does it from the front cab.
About a third of Britain’s railways already work this way, including the entire London Underground. Moreover, Southern isn’t really proposing to get rid of on-board conductors: it guarantees it will keep two people on each service, but the conductor (rebranded as an “on-board supervisor”) won’t have the same door-opening role.
Why do the unions object?
Even though the UK rail safety regulator has ruled that DOO trains are just as safe, the unions insist that they really do compromise safety: the on-board conductor, they reckon, has a better view of all the doors from the middle of the train and is better placed to help in an emergency. But they also, crucially, regard the switch as the thin end of the wedge – part of a long-term ploy to phase out a second staff member on services, and thereby cut costs by slashing jobs. They may well be right.
“No rail operator can guarantee jobs in perpetuity,” The Times noted this week, “any more than the unions can uninvent the technologies that have been making railways more efficient and less labour-intensive for decades.” But for now, the unions’ refusal to budge looks like politically motivated intransigence: Southern is guaranteeing no forced job cuts or loss of pay, and is offering a £2,000 lump sum sweetener to be paid in the new year.
Has the strike been handled well?
No, Southern’s tactics have been stupid and self-defeating. Govia Thameslink Railway (Southern’s owners) chose the very moment RMT guards were first going on strike in April over driver-only trains to cut some long-standing staff benefits, including free travel for family members. The number of people taking days off sick promptly doubled, and drivers stopped volunteering to work overtime. That meant chaos, cancellations, and growing despair among commuters.
In July, Southern was forced to withdraw 15% of its services altogether. But even before the strike began, Britain’s biggest rail franchise had become an unconscionable mess. In the 17 months since GTR took over the franchise, it has cancelled up to 350 services a day even when its staff have not been striking, and its revenues have collapsed by 92%. It has the worst record on train punctuality and customer satisfaction in the country.
Why is it so useless?
The current crisis has its ultimate roots in the chaotic privatisation of British Rail, which delayed for years the planned upgrading of the network around London Bridge, one of the capital’s busiest stations. Ongoing work there is one of the causes of the current chaos. But so, too, are more mundane management failures such as underestimating the impact of engineering works and a failure to recruit enough drivers.
Cynical observers also point to the unique structure of the management contract under which Southern operates. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the London Bridge works, the company’s contract makes it accountable to Whitehall, and the Department for Transport is liable for paying passengers compensation for delays. In other words, GTR is paid whether is runs a reliable train service or not – scarcely a sustainable model of customer service.
Can the government do anything?
It can’t force private-sector workers to return to work against their will. However, the all-out strikes have reportedly stiffened spines in Whitehall: transport secretary Chris Grayling is considering a range of options for emergency legislation – including a ban on all-out strikes on the railways; laws to ensure that at least half of all services keep running during a strike; and a ban on industrial action called on safety grounds if the industry regulator has pronounced a disputed practice safe (as in the current dispute).
The government also has the power to revoke rail franchises in exceptional circumstances – and Grayling is likely to be drawing up contingency plans to do just that, possibly breaking the “mega-franchise” in half at the same time.
A new model for the railways?
Chris Grayling hope to cut the power of Network Rail, the state-owned group that runs the UK’s track infrastructure, by introducing “integrated operating teams” to sit between it and the private train operators. He also wants a new Oxford-Cambridge line outside the control of Network Rail. This hardly amounts to a panacea, says the FT. First, Network Rail has few incentives to invest in modernisation, and it’s unclear how this rejig changes that.
Second, freight operators are worried that infrastructure will be managed to suit passenger operators. Third, it’s not clear why train operators would be prepared to take on big new risks: their contracts are typically shorter than the lifespan of the assets they need to invest in. The plans need clarifying: “another round of half-measures risks exacerbating the turmoil – and making commuters madder still”.