Southern Railway owner agrees £13.4 million improvements deal
THE group behind strike-hit Southern Railway has pledged to fund 50 on-board supervisors as part of a £13.4 million deal with the Government to fund improvements for long-suffering passengers.
Transport Secretary grilled over Southern Rail strikes
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which is run as a joint venture between Go-Ahead and French firm Keolis, said it had reached a long-awaited settlement with the Department for Transport (DfT) over its poor performance amid 18 months of strike action.
It will pay £4 million to fund 50 on-board supervisors from next January for two years, while £7 million will be put into a fund for the DfT to allocate towards projects and improvements to benefit passengers.
The remaining £2.4 million will go towards target performance improvements and GTR must submit plans on how it will do this to the Government.
We are pleased that this issue has been concluded,
Southern has been involved in a bitter dispute with unions over proposals for so-called driver-only operated trains, with conductors holding several strikes in the past year, while drivers have separately walked out due to the row.
But the railway has also been impacted by extensive improvement works, with GTR admitting it had "underestimated" the impact of this on the service.
Charles Horton, chief executive of GTR, said "We are pleased that this issue has been concluded, and accept and are sorry that our service levels haven't been good enough for passengers.
"We run the most congested network in the UK where passenger journeys have doubled in the last 12 years.
"This has meant we have been running services for more and more passengers while also allowing stations to be rebuilt, platforms extended, track and signalling replaced and new trains and technology introduced too."