Southern (Govia Thameslink Railway)

Southern was criticised for major changes to its timetables in December 2007 and December 2008.

In December 2007, Southern changed the arrangement for the splitting of services to and from London Victoria on the Arun Valley Line, opting to split trains at Horsham rather than Barnham. Some passengers criticised this change as it increased the journey time to and from London by up to 10 minutes from certain stations, while in the event of services running behind schedule, trains were sometimes not split at Horsham, and proceeded non-stop to Barnham, leaving Arun Valley commuters at Horsham with the prospect of no onward trains.[30]

In December 2008 further timetable changes included the introduction of the extended Gatwick Express services. However, reliability and timekeeping on some of the new services were considered poor, leading to several public meetings being held.[31][32][33] On 22 January 2009, Southern responded to some of these criticisms. During 2009 these services have recorded improved timekeeping and criticisms have since subsided.[34]

The new timetable also led to unhappiness due to the difference in speed and frequency of service between East Coastway services and those on the Brighton Main Line.[35][36]

Further changes to the timetable were made in December 2010; the first timetable change to include many of the requirements of the new franchise. Additional services were included at evenings and weekends. In the London area a 'metro' frequency of service was introduced on most routes with the extension of the weekday daytime four-trains-per-hour norm to late evenings (up to around midnight), Saturdays and Sundays. In addition, new late-night services were introduced from London on Friday and Saturday nights with last trains leaving central London at around 00:30.[37]

Outside London, a new later-evening service was introduced to Uckfield from London Bridge, new late-night services from Brighton along the West Coastway line and direct services between Southampton and Brighton on Sundays.[37]

In January 2015 Southern hit controversy when it was revealed that the 7.29am Brighton to London Victoria train failed to get in on time on any occasion out of all 240 attempts in 2014.[38] Later in May 2015 it was revealed that Southern had fined passengers for standing in first class on an overcrowded train.[39] Only 20% of Southern trains arrived on time in the year from April 2015 to March 2016, and there was an ongoing industrial dispute over driver-only operated trains.[40][41] In late 2016, the Transport Select Committee told ministers to "get a grip" on railway franchises, with their report asking if the train operator was in breach of their contractual obligations due to the large number of cancelled trains, and went on to say, "in normal circumstances, this would be grounds for termination of the contract".[42][43]

In 2016, the company introduced an "amended timetable [that] would be a temporary measure until staffing returned to normal" to be announced on 5 July. The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) trade union said that 350 services would be cancelled every day (the company ran 2,242 weekday services in the previous timetable). The company said it had insufficient personnel, and too many were taking sick leave; the union denied that high levels of sickness were the cause of cancellations, while agreeing that there were an insufficient number of guards and drivers.[44]

The government Department for Transport said that the situation was unacceptable. While the company was obliged to notify the Department in advance, this did not amount to giving the company permission for the changes. The RMT union general secretary Mick Cash said the government had permitted GTR to introduce the emergency timetable, but that it was "nothing to do with staff sickness and everything to do with gross mismanagement of this franchise and the failure to employ enough guards and drivers. ... a cynical and cowardly ploy".[44]

The London Evening Standard mentioned Southern in an article in June 2016 "Southern rail suggests commuter goes on 100 mile detour to Clapham instead of her normal six minute journey".[45] In June 2016, amongst criticism of the performance of its services, Go-Ahead warned of lower than anticipated profits on its Govia Thameslink Railway franchises, leading to an 18% drop in the Go-Ahead share price.[46]

From 31 October 2016, Southern restored the full weekday timetable.[47]

A map of Metro Route services operated by Southern, as of December 2016.

In 2016, Southern altered its method of door operation, with control of the doors moving from the conductor to the driver. Southern said this would allow the conductor to concentrate on the passengers, but the RMT and Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) unions said that it was an attempt to make conductors unnecessary and would be unsafe. The rail safety regulator, the Rail Standards and Safety Board has said that "We have 30 years of data which we have analysed. We have found that the driver performing the task does not increase the risk to passengers at all."[48] In 2016, the RMT and ASLEF unions went on strike over the changes, causing severe disruption to Southern services.[49] The strikes continued into 2017.[50]

The BBC suggested that the RMT union are particularly worried about the new method of operation because if drivers (rather than conductors) control the doors then trains could run without conductors and thus any strike by conductors would not have the power to cancel trains.[51]

In December 2016, it was announced that the government would pay £50 million to Southern to cover the costs of the disruption caused by the strikes, due to a deal between the government and Southern. This deal means that the government pays £38 million for lost revenue and £15 million in compensation to passengers. This deal also means that Govia Thameslink Railway will save around £1.1 million in pay for striking workers.[52] Commentators argue that the government gave a management contract rather than a normal franchise to GTR in order to push through DOO. The management contract meant that GTR did not have the incentive to resolve strikes as a normal franchisee would have, as the government lost money from strikes rather than GTR.[53][54]

On 2 February 2017, the TUC announced that talks between Southern and ASLEF had reached an agreement meaning that the dispute with ASLEF had been resolved. However, the RMT union said it was 'betrayed' by Southern, strikes by the RMT will continue.[55]

Commencing 29 June 2017, ASLEF implemented an overtime ban, aiming to highlight a claimed failure by Southern to recruit adequate staff.

Former units operated by Southern include:

Class	Image	Type	Built	Withdrawn	Notes
205 (3H)		DMU	1957–1960	2004	Replaced by Class 171 Turbostar. Some preserved.
207 (3D)			1962
319		EMU	1987	2008	Transferred to First Capital Connect after being made redundant by newer Class 377 Electrostar trains.
350/1 Desiro			2004-2005	2009	These trains were subleased from London Midland from 2008-09, to provide cover for Class 377 Electrostar units subleased to First Capital Connect. After newer Class 377 Electrostar trains were built, these units were returned to London Midland.[70]
421 (4Cig)		EMU	1964–1966	2005	Replaced by Class 377 Electrostar. Some preserved.
423 (4Vep)			1967–1971
456		EMU	1990–1991	2014	Transferred to South West Trains after being made redundant by newer Class 377/6 Electrostar units.

Southern's fleet is maintained at Brighton Lovers Walk and Selhurst depots. The Gatwick Express fleet is maintained at Stewarts Lane. Since December 2014, the Class 455 fleet is now maintained at Stewarts Lane (having transferred from Selhurst).

Light maintenance is also carried out at Littlehampton for the electric fleet, and St Leonards for the class 171 fleet when on Marshlink services.

The franchise consultation paper released at the beginning of the 2009 franchising process stated that the ultimate franchise agreement would include a change mechanism to enable the DfT to incorporate additional routes into the South Central franchise, and it invited bidders to submit priced options for schemes put forward by stakeholders. One such scheme could, as indicated in the South Central Franchise Consultation Paper, be the reopening of the Uckfield – Lewes line, closed in 1969.[71] In recent years, several interested parties have been examining the possibility of reopening the line.[72][73]

In January 2016, Transport for London announced a proposal to take over the London suburban parts of the franchise in 2021 through a partnership with the Department for Transport to form a new suburban metro service.[74] However, the plan was rejected by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling in December 2016.[75] In November 2017, the Government announced it was investigating the possibility of transferring some of the Southern routes to TfL after the franchise expires in 2021.[76]

In January 2017, it was reported that the Department for Transport was considering temporarily renationalising the franchise if the service did not improve.[77]

In 2012, Southern became the first rail company in England to use the ITSO card on its network. The Key is a smartcard similar to Transport for London's Oyster card. Tickets for the smartcard are available only in Single, Return, Weekly, Monthly and Annual Season tickets.[81] Southern plans to add a Pay-As-You-Go option in the near future, but tests on this are still in progress.[82] There are three types of The Key smartcards: Child, Adult and Staff. All child smartcards need a photograph to prove the age of the holder, while adults who wish to use their smartcard only for single and return tickets do not require a picture. The Key is insured so that if lost or stolen it can be de-activated and the tickets transferred to a new card sent out in the post.[82]

The Key allows customers to buy Plusbus for the Crawley and Brighton areas. This is because Metrobus (which operates in Crawley) and Brighton and Hove Buses are owned by Go-Ahead Group, Southern's parent company. Brighton & Hove Buses also uses The Key on its buses but it is not possible to use a B&H bus key on Southern and vice versa at the moment unless using Plusbus. Southern is looking to change this by the end of 2013.[82]

The Key operates only at stations managed by Southern and outside London because it is not currently compatible with the Oyster card readers. Southern has been working with Transport for London and the Department for Transport to change this, and the Oyster card readers should be compatible by December 2013.[82]

Southern operated a pilot for The Key between Brighton and Seaford in 2010 as these stations are served only by Southern trains (with the exception of Brighton). This was a success and so in 2012 it began to gradually expand across the network. Originally the only ticket type available on The Key was season tickets; in August 2013 Southern added Return and Single tickets to The Key.

As of January 2020, The Key is available on the entire Southern network with the exception of the West Coastway Line west of Warblington, the West London Line north of Harrow & Wealdstone and the Mole Valley Line between Bookham and Guildford (which has a limited Southern service).[83]