Southern Rail STRIKE details

[Lower West Stander]

Everything was fine 'ish until they decided to make too many changes, get rid of people and basically stick 2 fingers up at their workforce. If you ran a company and you pissed off everyone who worked for you then no doubt your business would be suffering the same as the railways are.

The government could step in right now and say enough is enough, they hold the purse strings and dictates the policy so that is where your anger should be directed at

I agree the whole privatised rail system was a complete cock up, but my experience is that everyone involved has some level of culpability for the appalling service provided by Southern.

This starts with the lack of information at railway stations, poor management decisions relating to staffing levels and unhelpful guards.

Everyone just get it sorted - please!


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[Deadly Danson]

I had to train it in and out of Brighton today, the train in was a total shambles, having to station hop to get into Brighton for what should be a 15 min train ride at most. I dodged a bullet on the way back and benefited from a delayed train from earlier which was delivering a cargo of poor souls further down the line to another town where the train was to terminate and then the passengers, well the passengers had to find their own way on to their onward journey.

The few Southern staff that can be bothered to do what theyre paid for who are dealing with customers don't even have the decency to offer travel advice or an apology. Just a shrug was all I saw most paying customers getting.

Rail staff from top to bottom should be ashamed of this debacle. A two fingered salute to the poor ****ers who pay their wages. The whole lot, top to bottom want sacking and replacing with people who have a bit of ****ing pride in the rail system, at one time the best in the world. Now a shambles due to pure laziness and profiteering.

I can't accept this - most of my colleagues will go out of their way to help. I take pride in trying to get you to your destination on time and safely. Don't blame the staff on the ground, they usually have no information, frequently I have absolutely no clue what is going on so I can't really help but I will do my best. The management have made my job almost impossible and have produced staff with zero morale. Of course there are a few bad apples. I can only drive one train at a time and if Southern don't provide me with a working train to drive or enough time to get there then there is only so much I can do. I know the service is absolutely shocking at the moment and it's natural to take it out on the staff but it runs much much deeper than that.

 

[Ernest]

For me the change in Southern since the new franchise started is enormous. Never had a huge problem with them prior to that (although there were plenty of issues) but it's like the Nazi party have taken over since the change. Led by the Dft they are hell bent on decimating the service, sacking as many staff as they can get away with, royally pissing off those staff that are left, making the service as unsafe as possible and making incident recovery even worse than it used to be. It's no coincidence that trains are less reliable- they have been cutting back on the staff that maintain the train. They are trying to squeeze the maximum amount of work from each driver and guard on every diagram - no one is scared of hard work but it only takes a few mins delay on one service for the driver or guard to be unable to make their next service and thus the service gets worse and worse and the inevitable "service delayed due to waiting for a member of train crew" is heard making it sound like our fault. Again, if everyone on here who rely on the trains complained to their MPs and signed the various petitions to strip Southern of the franchise it might, just might make a difference.

They would rather moan on here or Twitter and blame the staff as they're too thick to see what is going on

 

[The Clamp]

I can't accept this - most of my colleagues will go out of their way to help. I take pride in trying to get you to your destination on time and safely. Don't blame the staff on the ground, they usually have no information, frequently I have absolutely no clue what is going on so I can't really help but I will do my best. The management have made my job almost impossible and have produced staff with zero morale. Of course there are a few bad apples. I can only drive one train at a time and if Southern don't provide me with a working train to drive or enough time to get there then there is only so much I can do. I know the service is absolutely shocking at the moment and it's natural to take it out on the staff but it runs much much deeper than that.

I blame the whole lot. From station/train staff to directors.

 

[Frutos]

I can't accept this - most of my colleagues will go out of their way to help.

I can only presume the guy I encountered at Brighton this arvo was an exception then - I was waiting for the 13:10 to Seaford, due at Platform 7, then there was a platform alteration announcement saying that it had been moved to Platform 8. Everyone waiting trudged to the far end of Platform 8 and boarded the waiting Class 313 train, only for the actual 13:10 to Seaford to show up on Platform 7 as initially intended.

I mentioned to the nearest member of platform staff that he might want to find a way of letting all the folks on the train at Platform 8 know that they were in the wrong place through no fault of their own, but he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

 

[The Clamp]

They would rather moan on here or Twitter and blame the staff as they're too thick to see what is going on

This is the attitude I mean. I hope things improve for you all at work but I wish you would stop disrupting the entire South East with your moral stand.

 

[Ernest]

This is the attitude I mean. I hope things improve for you all at work but I wish you would stop disrupting the entire South East with your moral stand.

I don't work for Southern or the railway, I'm just an interested bystander

 

[Deadly Danson]

EVERYONE involved in this appalling ****ing mess ought to be ashamed of themselves - whether it's SASTA, the RMT, the Government or whoever else, their ****-ups and squabbles are impacting the most important people in any service industry: their CUSTOMERS.

But the RMT (and Aslef) are trying to maintain a safe, reliable service for the future for the customers. If action isn't taken now (and don't forget there have only been 3 days of strikes so far - everything else is down to Southern's incompetence) then the service will get worse and worse and more alarmingly less and less safe. I know it's incredibly annoying but ALL your ire needs to be directed at those who make the big decisions, not at those who are left to try and pick up the pieces.

 

[Frutos]

They would rather moan on here or Twitter and blame the staff as they're too thick to see what is going on

It amazes me that anyone can still be willing to defend or apologise for any part of this.

 

[Deadly Danson]

I blame the whole lot. From station/train staff to directors.

Thanks.

 

[The Clamp]

I don't work for Southern or the railway, I'm just an interested bystander

Well I never.

Well, I hope it gets sorted soon. Luckily I don't need the train to get to work but I really feel for those that do. They get precious little time with family as it is.

Talking of which, have a fab weekend and hope you don't need to use the train too much!

 

[Frutos]

But the RMT (and Aslef) are trying to maintain a safe, reliable service for the future for the customers. If action isn't taken now (and don't forget there have only been 3 days of strikes so far - everything else is down to Southern's incompetence) then the service will get worse and worse and more alarmingly less and less safe. I know it's incredibly annoying but ALL your ire needs to be directed at those who make the big decisions, not at those who are left to try and pick up the pieces.

So when does this end?

The staff simply strike and strike and strike and strike and strike until they get their way?

 

[Deadly Danson]

I can only presume the guy I encountered at Brighton this arvo was an exception then - I was waiting for the 13:10 to Seaford, due at Platform 7, then there was a platform alteration announcement saying that it had been moved to Platform 8. Everyone waiting trudged to the far end of Platform 8 and boarded the waiting Class 313 train, only for the actual 13:10 to Seaford to show up on Platform 7 as initially intended.

I mentioned to the nearest member of platform staff that he might want to find a way of letting all the folks on the train at Platform 8 know that they were in the wrong place through no fault of their own, but he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

In fairness there are a couple of platform staff that could do with a customer service upgrade.

 

[Ernest]

So when does this end?

The staff simply strike and strike and strike and strike and strike until they get their way?

There haven't been any strikes for 3 weeks, there are no strikes planned so ask yourself why are the trains not running as they should ?

 

[Deadly Danson]

So when does this end?

The staff simply strike and strike and strike and strike and strike until they get their way?

I'm afraid so. But you make it sound like we want more money or to do less work or have more holidays. This is only about YOUR safety and if it takes strikes to make this happen then so be it. I hate the thought of going on strike but sometimes you have to do what is right (or at least what you perceive to be right) as we did when we disrupted games to get rid of Archer.

 

[Deadly Danson]

there haven't been any strikes for 3 weeks, there are no strikes planned so ask yourself why are the trains not running as they should ?

exactly.

 

[Bozza]

It amazes me that anyone can still be willing to defend or apologise for any part of this.

For all the good guys like [MENTION=1332]Deadly Danson[/MENTION], there will be the old dinosaurs like [MENTION=1416]Ernest[/MENTION]* still knocking about on the railways who will take great delight in sticking it to a big corporate, almost regardless of the merit of the cause**. Severe customer disruption? Meh - collateral damage.

* - yes, I know Ernest himself does not work on the railways any more.
** - yes, I know this particular dispute has some merit.

 

[Frutos]

I'm afraid so. But you make it sound like we want more money or to do less work or have more holidays. This is only about YOUR safety and if it takes strikes to make this happen then so be it. I hate the thought of going on strike but sometimes you have to do what is right (or at least what you perceive to be right) as we did when we disrupted games to get rid of Archer.

What plans does the RMT have in place to do anything else about the situation, or are they just one-trick ponies?

Why not go to the media and highlight every single point of their issues, why not go to the press and do the same, why not hold protests and rallies to get their views across to the people who matter, why not do something to combat the lies that they are allowing SASTA to foist onto their customers every single day?

 

[Ernest]

For all the good guys like [MENTION=1332]Deadly Danson[/MENTION], there will be the old dinosaurs like [MENTION=1416]Ernest[/MENTION]* still knocking about on the railways who will take great delight in sticking it to a big corporate, almost regardless of the merit of the cause**. Severe customer disruption? Meh - collateral damage.

* - yes, I know Ernest himself does not work on the railways any more.
** - yes, I know this particular dispute has some merit.

So what is the point of this post ? Stick to having half a shandy on your Friday night drinkathon

 

[Deadly Danson]

What plans does the RMT have in place to do anything else about the situation, or are they just one-trick ponies?

Why not go to the media and highlight every single point of their issues, why not go to the press and do the same, why not hold protests and rallies to get their views across to the people who matter, why not do something to combat the lies that they are allowing SASTA to foist onto their customers every single day?

They really really do all of the above. There are press releases most days, there have been rallies and protests but the media don't seem particularly interested in picking it up. And as of yesterday the High Court have prevented drivers i.e Aslef from striking until at least next month so it may be that the DFt/government/GTR get their wish and the trains will become much less safe. I don't particularly fancy a manslaughter charge if someone who I can't see is dragged under the train due to penny pinching.