GTR strike update

• SERVICES RUNNING AS PLANNED: NEARLY 90% ON-TIME IN MORNING PEAK
• RMT CONFIRM JOBS NOT AT RISK
• INDEPENDENT SAFETY BODY CONFIRM SAFETY NOT AT RISK FROM DOO

10:00, TUESDAY 21 JUNE 2016

Strike action is continuing across the Southern Railway network today, but services are largely running to the revised strike day timetable. Disruption will continue all day today and is likely to affect some early morning services on Wednesday 22 June.

Between 06:00-09:00, 90% of Southern services into London Bridge arrived on-time; and 87.5% of services into London Victoria were on-time.

In other developments in the dispute, RMT boss Mick Lynch confirmed this morning that jobs are not at risk in the dispute. Speaking on the Today Programme, in response to Nick Robinson’s assertion that the dispute was about protecting jobs, Lynch responded that, “No they’ve been offered jobs as alternatives.”

This follows confirmation from the independent rail safety body, RSSB, that there is “no increased safety risk” from driver operated doors, and that in fact there are “potentially deliver some safety benefits” on services where conductors operate train doors due to the removal of the risk of miscommunication between driver and guard.

Commenting on today’s developments, a GTR spokesperson said:

“The RMT has now accepted that jobs are not at risk, and the RSSB has nailed their bogus safety claims. Given this, passengers are bound to conclude that this strike is about nothing more than the RMT asserting their power to bring the railway to a standstill. Enough is enough, this strike should be the last.”

ends