I'm not sure that his comments about guards hiding away in compartments is either accurate or indeed likely to help the dispute to get resolved. It's almost as if they're trying to antagonise the staff whilst also looking to seem reasonable to the customers.
What surprises me about this is that despite a relatively poorly informed (and amenable) media, limitless supply of pr advice and media onslaught via the government, and a poor public attitude from the union when interviewed, southern still fails to land a knockout blow that turns the majority of commuters against the industrial action and pro southern
His attitude stinks. If he's letting comments like hiding away, rolling back the clock etc slip out in a BBC PR exercise I dread to think what he's like in private discussions with the unions.