Southern Rail strike will cost London £100m

Union barons were today accused of “not caring” about the misery being inflicted on hundreds of thousands of commuters by a five-day strike which is set to cost London £100 million.

Two ministers tore into the RMT union for unleashing a second day of disruption on Southern Rail services in a row over driver-only operated trains. Rail minister Paul Maynard said: “It is clear they do not care about the damage they are causing to the daily lives of passengers.”

Praising conductors who defied the walkout to ensure that some trains did run, he said: “They have been putting the travelling public first, and it is time the RMT did.”

London minister Gavin Barwell was equally scathing of the industrial action, flatly rejecting claims by the union that safety on trains was at stake.

Mr Barwell, the MP for Croydon Central, said: “They are trying to protect their influence with the franchise operator and effectively be able to hold them to ransom.”

He said it was “clearly wrong” that the strike was ordered after just over 300 RMT members voted for it. “People would understand if there was a legitimate safety concern,” he said. “But I have not seen a shred of evidence that driver only operating is unsafe.”

With dozens of routes affected by the strike, including some services finishing at 4.30pm, experts predicted the stoppage will cost the London economy up to £20 million a day — two per cent of its GDP — adding up to £100 million over the week.

This is equivalent to more than £326,000 for each of the 306 RMT workers who voted for it. David Leam, infrastructure director of London First, said: “The RMT’s week-long strike could cost London’s economy tens, if not hundreds, of millions of pounds.

“Yet we now learn that this mayhem has the backing of just 300 trade union members. Rarely can so much economic damage have been inflicted on so many by so few, and with such spurious cause.”

Up to 300,000 commuters from Surrey, Sussex and Kent use Southern and James Merrett, director of advisory services at consultancy and construction group Mace, said: “The challenge is that people won’t make the journey to work because of the disruption.

“Alongside delayed journeys and increased stress levels — which impacts productivity — this will undoubtedly have a bearing on London’s economy.”

Tomorrow, union bosses are due to stage a protest tomorrow outside the Department for Transport, demanding that the Government lifts its alleged “blockade” on a peace deal in the Southern Rail dispute. The RMT has offered to call off the strike if Southern agrees to a deal similar to that which ended the row with ScotRail.

A sticking-point appears to be that Govia Thameslink Railway, the parent company of Southern, is insisting that in circumstances of disruption, a train can leave with only a driver rather than it being delayed or cancelled.

Mick Cash, the RMT’s general secretary, rejected the Government criticism, and said: “This strike is about safety. It’s about retaining a second member of staff on trains with a safety critical function, which is exactly the agreement that we have now agreed with Scotrail.”

He said the deal had led to a planned strike in Scotland being suspended. “If it’s good enough and safe enough for Scottish passengers to have that second member of staff on a train, then it should be good enough for London and the South-East,” he said.

The union said that it had it on “good authority” that a peace deal being worked out at Acas, the conciliation service, late last Friday was edging towards a deal but the union blamed Peter Wilkinson, a senior Department for Transport official, for undermining the moves, a claim strongly denied by both Govia and the DfT.

Mr Barwell added that rail bosses, as well as the union, had to “get their act together” and resolve the dispute to end the misery for passengers “who pay their wages”.

He said that driver-only operated trains were already running on some Southern routes.