02.09.16
Transport secretary doesn’t ‘believe for a moment’ that TfL should run Southern
The new transport secretary has dismissed an offer from the mayor of London for TfL to take over the troubled Southern franchise.
Chris Grayling’s remarks came after he announced that the government would give £20m to Southern to try to solve the problems on the network, which have forced it to cancel 341 services a day.
Khan wrote to Grayling after he took office in July, saying that TfL should take over the franchise immediately from its current operator Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR).
In a radio interview, Grayling said: “I don’t believe for a moment that TfL has the skills to run the mainline from London to Brighton, and why should the mayor of London run trains that run between Southampton and Brighton? That’s not right.”
“The last thing passengers need is a big reorganisation,” he added. “What they need is somebody to sort the problems.”
Grayling denied that Khan’s suggestion had pressured him to introduce the changes, saying he’d been “looking carefully” at the best solution to Southern’s problems before announcing the new measures.
However, he cautioned that the changes would not “sort the world overnight”.
Grayling said that “the biggest challenge” to Southern was “the industrial action, but also the unofficial action”.
RMT has announced its fifth Southern conductors’ strike of the year, which will take place on 7 and 8 September.
Southern has also reported a higher rate of conductors requesting sick days since the strikes started, which Grayling said were “clearly part of a concerted attempt to put the rail company under pressure”.
“That’s a matter for the management and the unions to sort out,” he said. “The union should stop doing this, in my opinion.”
In an appearance before the Transport Select Committee in July, Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT, denied that the sickness absences were organised and blamed them on “increased levels of stress”.
Grayling said there was a long-term need to modernise Southern “properly” in order to solve its problems.
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