Rail franchise Southern remains under pressure from transport unions to scrap controversial plans to introduce driver only operation on trains, despite a new report which suggests the practice is safe.

 

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling welcomed the study by the Office of Rail & Road (ORR), claiming that it confirms the safety of Southern’s plans for services to have no conductor or guard on board.

 

As a result he urged drivers' union ASLEF to call off strike action in protest at the proposals.

 

“There are no grounds for the strike,” the Transport Secretary said. “The independent rail regulator has confirmed after a further review that driver controlled trains are safe.”

 

But the union remains unyielding, with strikes having gone ahead as planned this week. ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said: “Despite what Southern Railways is disingenuously claiming, the report from the Office of Rail & Road does not give driver only operation a clean bill of health. It doesn’t say it is safe, merely that it can be safe. This is all about putting profit before passenger safety.”

 

With suitable equipment, procedures and competent staff in place the proposed form of train dispatch intended by operator GTR Southern meets legal requirements for safe operation, the report says. It also identified several improvements that should be made before driver only operated services are introduced, including ensuring consistently high CCTV image quality.

 

A second union the RMT has also held strikes against driver only operation on Southern services. Its general secretary Mick Cash commented: “The ORR didn’t even have the decency to speak to RMT when compiling its report to get the workforce side of events. It instead concentrated only on the opening of doors and not the far wider guards' role of evacuating a train during an accident, fire or terrorist incident and a suite of other safety competencies.”

 

GTR Southern Railway's chief executive Charles Horton said: “Today a third of all trains on the UK rail network run with the driver in sole control. The Rail Safety & Standards Board and now the ORR have confirmed that this is a safe method of operation and the unions must now acknowledge that they have no credible argument that it’s an unsafe method of operation.

 

“Because of their unjustified and pointless industrial action, the travelling public have faced months of misery and hardship to their work and family lives for no substantive reason.”

 

He added: “The regulator has made a number of recommendations for further improvement which we accept and will action as soon as possible.”

 

♦ Mayor of London Sadiq Khan continues to call for devolution of the capital’s suburban rail services to Transport for London and has set out five pledges to improve passenger journeys.

 

“Millions of rail passengers continue to suffer a terrible service from the private train companies, with constant delays and cancellations,” the Mayor said, pointing to the Southern, Southeastern and South West franchises.

 

He pledged to freeze fares across London’s suburban rail routes, lay on more trains with improved reliability and ensure fewer strikes, delays and cancellations. “By focusing purely on reliability and customer service, passengers will finally get the frequency and reliability of trains they desperately need and deserve,” he said.

 

On Monday this week Tube station staff across London went on strike over job cuts and ticket office closures.

 

(Photo: Joshua Brown and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)