Hundreds of thousands of commuters who returned to work yesterday were advised not to travel at all next week because of a strike by train drivers.
All of Southern Railway’s 2,284 daily services will be halted because of the six-day strike — which will run from next Monday until Saturday — by drivers protesting against the introduction of the driver-only operation of trains.
Southern yesterday issued the dramatic warning to passengers: “We advise you not to travel during the drivers’ strike.” During the strike, there will be no Southern service on any route.
The Gatwick Express, owned by Southern’s parent company GTR, will only operate between Victoria and Gatwick and there will be no service from Brighton.
Trains will only run every 30 minutes instead of every 15.
Thameslink trains will run, but there were warnings that there will be severe overcrowding.
Businesses are set to lose tens of millions of pounds, thanks to staff failing to turn up for work and lost orders.
The Southern dispute has been described as one of the most disruptive strikes for 60 years. An ongoing overtime ban by train drivers is causing daily disruption, with many services cancelled or delayed.
Striking rail staff could also be joined by those on the Tube. Crisis talks are due to take place today at Acas, the conciliation service, to try to prevent a 24-hour strike by 4,000 Tube station and ticket staff from 8pm on Sunday and lasting all day Monday in a separate dispute over job losses.
If the strike goes ahead it will have a huge effect on Tube services, closing stations and lines.
Union leaders meet this week to decide whether to order more strikes on Southern, despite the company saying that from yesterday it was running 70% of its services in driver-only mode and would not be extending the policy further.
The company said its goal for increased driver-only services had been partly achieved, but admitted it that had been prevented from running more as it had originally planned because of combined strike action by the Aslef and RMT unions.
Southern yesterday called on the unions to halt future strike action and return to the negotiating table, adding that future strike action was “pointless”.
Train fares yesterday rose by an average 2.3% across the UK. Southern said its increase would be 1.8%, adding more than £80 to an annual Brighton-to-London season ticket, which will now cost £4,536.
Research by the Action for Rail campaign found that British commuters spend up to six times as much of their salaries on rail fares as other European passengers.
Commuters to London pay on average £387 a month, compared with £61 for commuters in Paris or Rome.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of Travel Focus, the transport watchdog, called for a fares freeze for Southern passengers, which he said would “help to rebuild trust following the months of misery they have experienced”.
Meanwhile, London mayor Sadiq Khan yesterday called on the government to match his fares freeze as rail commuters were hit by a “scandalous” ticket price increase of up to 5%.
He said many Londoners felt “enough was enough” as he urged ministers to use the next Budget to freeze fares on suburban routes. The mayor claimed the only viable long-term solution was for the government to hand control of commuter trains to Transport for London so he could apply a similar freeze. Heralding his move, Khan said: “Londoners will rightly be furious that on the same day they go back to work, the government have allowed the private train companies to increase their fares. Given the train companies’ woeful record of delays, cancellations and overcrowding, it’s scandalous that the government are letting the train companies off the hook again.”
Commuters walk alongside train carriages after arriving at King’s Cross railway station in London yesterday. Train fares in Britain rose by an average 2.3%.
