Please find below a letter from Chief Operating Officer, Dyan Crowther, regarding Southern's service plan for RMT strike:
Good afternoon,
Re: Southern service plan for 48-hour RMT conductors’ strike
I am writing to inform you of the service plan we intend to run during the RMT’s planned 2-day strike this week. If the strike goes ahead, then by using contingency conductors, we expect to run almost 60% of our normal timetable on Wednesday 7 September and Thursday 8 September. There will be extra staff at stations to help passengers and arrangements in place for passengers to use alternative transport providers.
There will be a restricted service, with many routes having fewer trains, and, unfortunately, on some routes there will be no service at all. Trains on many routes will start late and finish early (0700/0730-1800). We will deploy a similar communications plan to the plan we followed during previous strikes in order to ensure customers are aware of the possible impact the strike will have on their journey. We are also urging passengers to check our website for details of how they may be affected so they can plan their journeys at www.southernrailway.com/rmtstrike.
Finally, I would like to apologise that your constituents will suffer delay and disruption yet again because of RMT industrial action. Our plans are safe, and will mean fewer cancelled trains. We have guaranteed all our onboard staff a job until the end of the franchise, with no reduction in salary. After many months of trying to reach agreement with the RMT, we are now moving forward with our plans for the benefit of customers.
As you will know, this week a significant proportion of the 341 trains cancelled on July 11 as part of a temporary timetable were restored to inner London services and remaining train services will be reintroduced into the Southern timetable incrementally in the coming weeks.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Yours faithfully,
Dyan Crowther
Chief Operating Officer