Two days ago, rail workers from the RMT union (more stoppage days coming up in May!), commuters' representatives and disability campaigners held a protest outside the Houses of Parliament; see BBC Report. This marked the anniversary of 2 years of industrial action and campaigning against Southern Railway wanting trains staffed only by drivers, and at the behest of the Department of Transport!
Meanwhile, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has slammed the "broken model of rail franchising" lauded by the Government and the Transport Minister, Chris Grayling! The PAC Report slams the Government's (mis) management of two of the rail franchises, our very own Govia Thameslink franchise running Southern (and Thameslink and Great Northern) and the privatised, renationalised because it was failing and then making money whilst nationalised, then sold off and now failing again under the franchise system, the East Coast franchise!
The Chair of the PAC, Meg Hillier said "the Government appears to have seen its task as simply to contract out the service, with wholly inadequate consideration given to passengers' best interests... The franchising model is broken and passengers are paying the price." See the PAC Report at the Parliament website for more.
Couldn't agree more Meg, amen to that!
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