A further strike by drivers has again brought Southern rail services to a standstill after talks between the company and drivers' union ASLEF this week ended without a deal.
The talks at the offices of conciliation service Acas begn on Wednesday and were adjourned overnight but broke up without agreement on Thursday. Southern has warned customers that there will be no services on Friday and that they should not travel.
Nick Brown, chief operating officer of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which runs Southern services, said: ‘We're deeply disappointed, as our passengers will be, that ASLEF has been unable to accept our proposals and we cannot find a way forward to end this dispute with the drivers' union at this stage.
'We put a practical offer on the table yesterday for the union to consider overnight with the aim of getting tomorrow's strike called off. Today we explored a number of initiatives with them. We're pleased that the union did acknowledge to us today they welcomed our attempts to find solutions. But, regrettably, they simply will not shift from their entrenched position and rigid opposition to our modernisation plans. Once again, ASLEF want to go back and not look forward.'
The dispute between ASLEF and GTR centres around the company’s changes to the role of conductors (guards) on Southern services, transferring responsibility for opening and closing doors to drivers on more trains.
Mr Brown said: 'ASLEF claims drivers closing doors is inherently unsafe. The Office of Rail and Road and the Rail Safety & Standards Board have stated that drivers closing doors is a safe mode of operation. For 30 years trains have been running up and down the country's railways this way and today over a third of the national train network runs this way.'
He added: ‘ Our door remains open.’
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