Please see below a letter from Charles Horton, CEO of GTR:
This is to update you further on the industrial relations situation on Southern, and our plans for next week’s 48 hour strike on Tuesday and Wednesday by RMT conductors.
We will be providing more services than we have on previous strike days. In addition to the Victoria/Haywards Heath shuttles we introduced in the last strike, Southern will be providing a further 28 trains between Tonbridge and Redhill, with an hourly service running from around 06.30 to 18.30.
Trains between Victoria and Chichester will run later into the evening this time around with last services leaving Victoria at 21.36 and from Chichester at 21.23. For further details on our service plans please visit www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/strike
We are continuing to plan for the level of service we intend to operate should the RMT’s action for the Christmas and New Year period go ahead, and will update you on that shortly. We are doing our best to be able to deliver the best possible service in the circumstances; clearly it is frustrating that the RMT has shown such a disregard for the travelling public in calling action over the festive period.
With all but one of the 223 conductors designated as On Board Supervisors now having signed up to the new role, the on-going RMT action is completely pointless. In addition to the 222 conductors who will be moving over to the new role, a further 100 people are currently being recruited to work OBS roles across Southern and Gatwick Express. On Monday of this week, a further 178 trains on Southern moved over to being operated with the driver in full control of the train. The impact of future RMT strikes will continue to reduce as we complete the process of giving drivers full operational control of trains. OBSs can work more flexibly, we are recruiting more of them and if one is not available at short notice, we can run a train without one being available.
Finally, I am pleased to confirm that Nick Brown has now formally taken up the role of our Chief Operating Officer. Nick brings to the role a wealth of senior leadership experience across the transport industry, and he looks forward to meeting many of you in the coming months.
Yours sincerely,
Charles Horton
Chief Executive Officer